by Amanda OldaniChapter 14, written by Dressler, Balieiro, and dos Santos examines the relationships between cultural consonance, genetic influences, and depression. Cultural consonance is understood as how well a person’s behaviors and beliefs align with the shared cultural models of a group for certain domains within life. The chapter begins with the stories of two comparable men who differ on their levels of cultural consonance and depressive symptoms; after two years, one man has had a change in cultural consonance associated with lower depressive symptoms. I thought this opening was a perfect demonstration that introduced us to this somewhat complex study.
The authors discuss the theoretical background and previous barriers to research into cultural factors in relation to depression, such as methodological issues. With the introduction of cultural consonance, based on a cognitive theory of culture (meaning culture is the shared knowledge across people), cultural models and peoples’ adherence to them can be more thoroughly examined. Lower cultural consonance means there is a gap between behavior and cultural expectations, which often has negative and stressful effects, such as depression. A previous study found that perceived stress partially mediated the effects of cultural consonance on depression, but only for the family life domain. From this point in the research, the authors wanted to look for another explanatory factor. At the same time, other research has looked into the interactions between genes and the environment, examining how genotype can moderate a stressful event’s effects on mood. However, this research does not create a concrete enough definition of “stress” that is desired. By combining these lines of research, the researchers were able to complement gaps in methodology and understanding. The gene-environment research focuses on genetic polymorphisms in the serotonin system within the brain. In a preliminary study, the authors examined the “interaction of cultural consonance and the -1438 G/A polymorphism for 5HTR2A” and found that “The effect of cultural consonance in family life was enhanced in the presence of the AA variant of the polymorphism” (Dressler, Balieiro, & dos Santos, 2012, p. 378). This means that this specific variant can enhance the magnitude of the effects of changes in cultural consonance. The goal of this study is to further study these findings, “especially in terms of the way in which the psychological processes that mediate the link of cultural consonance and depression are in turn modified in the presence of a specific genetic variant” (Dressler et al., 2012, p. 365). The proposed mediator between cultural consonance and depression involves a negative self-schema and dysfunctional beliefs, meaning that people see experiences as failures and see themselves as incapable of achieving life goals. Genotype and specific variants were examined to see if they moderate the mediators or the mediation process as a whole. In Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, four neighborhoods that differed within the socioeconomic continuum were selected to be sampled. In order to understand the cultural consonance and what domains are particularly salient, multiple mixed-methods were used, including cultural domain analysis, participant-observation, and cultural consensus analysis. The important domains included lifestyle, social support, family life, and national identity; since people tend to be consistent across domains, one general variable for cultural consonance was utilized. People were surveyed twice, with two years in between, gathering psychological data and genetic information later. Results indicate that dysfunctional beliefs mediate between cultural consonance and depression, as long as the genotype includes the GA or GG variants; if the genotype is AA, the hypothesis is inaccurate but still important. People with the AA variant showed that cultural consonance had a stronger effect on depression than others with the GA or GG variants. These results show that the mediating pathway is also important; GA or GG peoples’ depression depends on their levels of conscious processing of these dysfunctional beliefs. AA people do not seem to need to ruminate on these thoughts because their low cultural consonance has a direct impact. I found this chapter to be very thorough; I appreciated the fact that it explained the process of understanding cultural consonance because at first I was a bit skeptical of the concept. I was also afraid this study would be too reductionist or simplified, but the authors note that this is an initial attempt at improving nuance. The authors had strength in understanding and acknowledging implications of this research, as well as the limitations. As the authors note, the study has a small sample size and imperfect measures. As negative self-schema, catastrophic thinking, and rumination are emphasized in psychology and the popular CBT, measures could surely be improved for future studies. I also had a question about the foundation for this research. The authors define culture using a cognitive theory of culture, but what if other researchers do not adhere to this definition? Is this the best way of understanding culture? Previous chapters have provided different ideas, which make me wonder about how other understandings of culture could be used to study this topic. References Dressler, W., Balieiro, M., & dos Santos, J.E. (2012). Cultural Consonance, Consciousness, and Depression: Genetic Moderating Effects on the Psychological Mediators of Culture. In Lende, D. H & Downey, G. (Eds.), The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology (pp. 363-388). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
10 Comments
Jake Aronoff
3/29/2016 09:05:01 pm
Dressler et al. provide an interesting (preliminary I believe) finding on the interaction of culture, genes, and depression. I think Amanda raises an important question regarding the measurement of culture in the form of the cognitively derived concept of cultural consonance. Dressler has developed and written a great deal on this. As I understand his defense of the concept, he does not claim to have "THE" measure of culture. Rather, this is "A" measure of culture. Instead of relying on an all encompassing concept of culture, Dressler relies on a "useful" one. Personally, I cannot help but enjoy the fact that this concept of culture relies on a definition provided by Goodenough (1996), what an individual needs to know in order to adequately function in a given society, because that last name is exactly how I would describe this definition (good enough).
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Jake Aronoff (2nd Post)
4/29/2016 03:40:45 pm
After reading the last chapter of this book by Lende & Downey, I find it interesting thinking about the different approaches to culture utilized in neuroanthropology. In particular, in contrasting Downey's approach and Dressler et al.'s approach, these can be understood as contrasting cognitive anthropology (culture consists of shared systems of meaning) and practice theory (culture is located and learned through practice, or action and interaction). I find it interesting trying to reconcile these two approaches. For example, possibly viewing shared systems of meaning as created, perpetuated, and changed through human interaction? Also, I find it interest to view both approaches in relation to the formation of emotional intuition. For example, D'Andrade (a leading theorist in cognitive anthropology) asserts that following cultural scripts based on shared systems of meaning promotes well being, thus creating an emotional drive or reward system (my words here, I'm not sure if he would refer to this as the creation of a reward system) based on living according to the script. While this appears to be the case based on the Dressler et al. chapter, I think it is also interesting to view the shaping of emotion through human interaction, which makes things more complicated, messy, and interesting.
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Catherine Lindsay Manson
3/30/2016 09:13:49 am
I found this study by Dressler et al. to be very complex, in that it addresses much of the genetic variants in the human genome (specifically Serotonin receptors). As someone with a very limited background with genetics I found the research someone confusing, but I agree with Amanda that this article was well written and incredibly thorough. The background stories of the two men studied was very useful to me; it helped understand the basic differences that the researchers were looking for in cultural consonance. The definition of what cultural consonance is and how it is used in researching depression is introduced early in the article and is repeated later in explaining the findings.
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Catherine Manson
4/27/2016 09:21:01 am
After discussing this chapter in class I am still slightly confused and unknowledgeable about genetics and how it could affect the feelings of depression. I do understand how the SSRI's are used to treat depression now and that they are used to increase the levels of serotonin intake. From my understanding in the class discussion, certain genetic variations are more or less sensitive to serotonin in the receptors which either creates a deficiency or hypersensitivity to serotonin and the feelings and affects that come with it.
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McCallie L. Smith III (Trip)
3/30/2016 10:18:23 am
Dr. Dressler's et al., in chapter 14 of Lende and Downey's book, took on a very interesting and important study of Depression, genes, and cultural consonance. The study, aside from being very complex, is (in my opinion) a great example of a blend of hard sciences and social sciences working in communion to address a specific topic, and important topic to many people around the world.
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McCallie L. Smith III (Trip) 2nd
5/4/2016 08:51:48 am
This chapter of the Encultured Brain was difficult to read and to fully grasp a working understanding of the material presented the first time around, and it is still difficult even after multiple reviews.
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Larry Monocello
3/30/2016 10:20:58 am
To connect this article to last week, it seems that Dressler et al. provides a reliable model for investigating the stress facet of the "Poverty Poisons the Brain" model. And with this data, they may be able to explain intra-social group variation in the effect of cultural consonance on depression through the genetic markers specified. As Jake pointed out, this is by no means the ONLY definition of culture that anthropologists use; however, it is one that is possible to investigate reliably based on current methods in cognitive anthropology.
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Jessica muzzo (second post)
5/3/2016 09:19:30 pm
When I went to the AAPA conference in Atlanta, I listened to a speaker discussing his most recent research dealing with grip strength. Basically, men showed more depressive symptoms the weaker their grip was, and women exhibited more depressive symptoms with stronger grip strength. It is entirely possible this is simply an irrelevant yet correlation statistic, but I could not help thinking of Dr. Dressler's work with cultural consonance. Perhaps upper body strength is closely associated with gender identification in this country, and the results of this study could be framed within this context.
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Issac 2nd post
5/4/2016 01:36:23 pm
If you were to ask me which study from this book was the most neuroanthropological this chapter would have to be at the top of my list. The focus is that of both hard science and social science, it is interested in culture and society but also genes and biological phenomena that could be at work. It also displays data from both a hard science perspective as well as social science's. The focus , the data , and the methods all seem to be interdisciplinary which is exactly what neuroanthropology calls for.
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12/28/2021 02:02:07 am
Great article source to read. Thank you for sharing this.
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AuthorThis blog is group authored by Dr. DeCaro and the students in his ANT 474/574: Neuroanthropology. Archives
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