The Emergence of the General Adaptation Syndrome in Contemporary Health Disparities Discourse Öffentlichkeit
Dunbar, Deanne (2011)
Published
Abstract
Abstract
The Emergence of the General Adaptation Syndrome in
Contemporary Health Disparities Discourse
The following is an intellectual history of stress research from
the characterization
of the physiological stress response by endocrinologists in the
1930's to the utilization of
this basic science research in the contemporary discussion of
differential well-being by
race. After the description of stress in the laboratory, its
cooptation by a variety of
disciplines resulted in a broadening of its definition and in
particular alterations of its
meaning. Since these changes make our contemporary understanding of
stress possible,
it is useful to examine the circumstances in which they
occurred.
This paper also undertakes an analysis of the long-standing
assertion that
modernization is a cause of increased stress and chronic disease.
The persistence of this
view is attributed to the influence of social theory upon
explanatory models of
modernization in the social sciences. I argue that mergers between
biology and the social
sciences allow the physiological concepts of milieu
intérieur and homeostasis to reflect
onto society a Durkheimian ideal of social stability.
As stability becomes defined by sociology and social epidemiology
in public
health, it positions stress as an inherent characteristic of
communities and environments.
In social epidemiology, the operationalizing of measures of social
embeddedness and
cohesion fit the holistic biological perspective which posits the
fit between an individual
and his environment as a determinant of health. These directions
for stress research have
particular implications for the role of human action in response to
stress and the
construction of vulnerability.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………….………………………..............….1
Chapter I: The General Adaptation Syndrome………………………………………..…13
Chapter II: Civilization and
Disease……………………….………………………..........34
Chapter II: Racism and
Disease……………………….………………………...............66
Conclusion……………………………….…………………………………...…….…................81
Bibliography……………………………………………..……………………................…………86
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