Cells and Surveys Should Biological Measures Be Included in Social Science Research? (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Biosocial Opportunities for Surveys
Biosocial Opportunities for Surveys
Pages 329-336
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From page 329... ...
Each child's height is determined to a considerable extent by the genes of its parents, and yet observed differences across time and between groups and populations mainly reflect environmental influences associated with nutrition, physical effort, and disease. In the second place, the study of height is interwoven with the study of the social dimensions of health, successfully bridging the biomedical, economic, and demographic research communities.
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From page 330... ...
When I think about the immediate value of including genetic and physiological indicators in social surveys, I find that I want to speak in praise of negative results. I fear that over the next decade we are likely to see a crude biological determinism trying to gobble up the social sciences.
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From page 331... ...
We also need preventive social science. I turn now to the kinds of questions that the inclusion of biological indicators in social surveys would help us to address.
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From page 332... ...
Opportunities to work on common data sets can help create a common language, and the inclusion of biological markers in social surveys is a logical step. An attractive alternative is to include social science modules in future waves of ongoing surveys already replete with biological indicators.
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From page 333... ...
Several of the authors in this book look forward to a time almost upon us when unobtrusive monitoring devices will be able to collect extensive individual data on environmental exposures, activity levels, and physiological responses. I am told that there will be computers woven into my scarf, controlled by the twiddling of my fingers in thin air, and devices in my belt buckle capable of reporting to the survey researcher more about my movements and environmental encounters than I think I ever want to know.
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From page 334... ...
Allostatic load is a term for the long-range cumulative effects of the body's physiological accommodations to stress, which can include changes that are adaptive in the short term, but which may also be injurious in the long run. Some researchers have operationalized allostatic load using a composite variable constructed from various biological measurements including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol ratios, and cortisol levels.
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From page 335... ...
Statistical methods are also available for constructing such indices automatically by searching for combinations of a given set of variables which capture as much as possible of the multidimensional variability in the data significant for some particular purpose defined by the researcher. In the case of allostatic load, dimensionality reduction takes us from ten variables down to one index.
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From page 336... ...
These are themselves examples of the kinds of processes we seek to study with biosocial surveys. As we study allostatic load, we need to learn to manage allostatic load and, borrowing Matthew Arnold's words, renew the "elastic powers."
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