please update my email address to [log in to unmask]
On Jul 26, 2007, at 9:58 AM, alex scott-samuel wrote:
> The psychosocial effects on health of socioeconomic inequalities
> Stephen Abbott
> Critical Public Health, 17(2), 151-158 (June 2007)
> http://tinyurl.com/23cqgb
>
> Abstract
> Socioeconomic inequalities are thought to impair health in a way
> that is independent of the effect of material deprivation on
> health. But the mechanisms whereby inequalities have such an effect
> have not been thoroughly explained or explored. Two linked but
> distinct mechanisms have been suggested: social comparison and
> hierarchical conflict. In the first case, people compare their
> social status with that of others, and where this comparison is to
> their disadvantage they experience negative emotions that impact on
> their health. Epidemiological data suggest that this is a large
> area effect but psychological studies of social comparison suggest
> that small-group comparisons are important for social comparison.
> No explanation as yet embraces both large and small scales, and
> much about social comparison and its possible effects on health is
> poorly understood. Hierarchical conflict has been well documented
> in non-human primate societies (although with variable effects on
> health), and it is hypothesized that human hierarchies, in so far
> as they are structures based on domination, may affect health by
> means of the chronic stress associated with subordination. However,
> the degree to which human and non-human behaviour is comparable is
> unclear; nor is it clear that hierarchy as such is necessary
> conflictual: this may depend on how it is organized socially and
> experienced by subordinate groups. Much work needs to be done to
> understand both hypotheses, although at present the social
> comparison hypothesis appears to have more explanatory power.
|