Cultural Consonance Research Articles

Norm internalization and the cognitive mechanism of cultural consonance

Human societies are unique in that our behavior is regulated by learned norms and influenced by cultural standards. The present article addresses one of the aspects of how normative culture affects individual's mental life. This study specifically examined the role of norm internalization in cultural consonance and individual psychological flourishing. The data, collected in New England in the winter of 2012, contained measures of individual's (n = 189) knowledge about a cultural model of a good, worthy life, the degree of internalization of the corresponding normative ideas, and self-reported information about each informant's lifestyle and individual mental health status. The results suggest that while stronger internalizers tend to have slightly better levels of psychological flourishing on average, they also suffer greater losses in positive mental health when they think that they are not conforming to the norms embedded in a cultural model.

CULTURE AS A MEDIATOR OF HEALTH DISPARITIES: CULTURAL CONSONANCE, SOCIAL CLASS, AND HEALTH

Health disparities or health inequalities refer to enduring differences between population groups in health status, well‐being, and mortality. Health inequalities have been described by race, ethnic group, gender, and social class. A variety of theories have been proposed to account for health inequalities, including access to medical care and absolute material deprivation. Several theorists (including Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson) have argued that relative deprivation is the primary factor. By this they mean the inability of individuals to achieve the kind of lifestyle that is valued and considered normative in their social context. In this article, we show that the concept and measurement of cultural consonance can operationalize what Marmot and Wilkinson mean by relative deprivation. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate, in their own beliefs and behaviors, the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Widely shared cultural models in society describe what is regarded both as appropriate and desirable in many different domains. These cultural models are both directive and motivating: people try to achieve the goals defined in these models; however, as a result of both social and economic constraints, some individuals are unable to effectively incorporate these cultural goals into their own lives. The result is an enduring loss of coherence in life, because life is not unfolding in the way that it, culturally speaking, “should.” The resulting chronic stress is associated with psychobiological distress. We illustrate this process with data collected in urban Brazil. A theory of cultural consonance provides a uniquely biocultural contribution to the understanding of health inequalities.

A Persian version of Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index.

This study aimed to translate the original English version of the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) into a Persian version and to assess the preliminary psychometric properties of the translated index among a sample of Persian elders. Twelve items included in GOHAI were first translated into Persian using a back-translation technique and then were compared with the original version. Four hundred and seventeen elderly subjects who were admitted to a day care centre answered GOHAI and an attached socio-demographic questionnaire. Internal consistency of the Persian version was measured by Cronbach's alpha. Test-retest reliability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and weighted kappa. Factor structure of GOHAI was evaluated by principal component factor analysis. Mean of GOHAI score was 45.71 (SD: 5.14; range: 27-51). The mean of GOHAI score was higher for the elders who rated their oral and general health as 'good'. The Cronbach's alpha for GOHAI score was 0.748, indicating a high degree of internal consistency and homogeneity between the GOHAI items. The test-retest correlation for the total GOHAI score using ICC was 0.763 (95% CI=0.713-0.809). Factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution that bolstered the theoretical construction of the index. Significant differences in the GOHAI scores were found for income and current number of teeth. The Persian version of the GOHAI can be used reliably to identify oral health-related concerns of older Persian speakers, but further research is needed to confirm its cultural consonance in this population.

Cultural consonance, constructions of science and co-existence: a review of the integration of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine in low- and middle-income countries.

This review examined the determinants, patterns and imports of official recognition, and incorporation of different traditional, complementary and alternative systems of medicine (TCAM) in the public health establishment of low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on India. Public health systems in most countries have tended to establish health facilities centred on allopathy, and then to recognize or derecognize different TCAM based on evidence or judgement, to arrive at health-care configurations that include several systems of medicine with disparate levels of authority, jurisdiction and government support. The rationale for the inclusion of TCAM providers in the public health workforce ranges from the need for personnel to address the disease burden borne by the public health system, to the desirability of providing patients with a choice of therapeutic modalities, and the nurturing of local culture. Integration, mostly described as a juxtaposition of different systems of medical practice, is often implemented as a system of establishing personnel with certification in different medical systems, in predominantly allopathic health-care facilities, to practise allopathic medicine. A hierarchy of systems of medicine, often unacknowledged, is exercised in most societies, with allopathy at the top, certain TCAM systems next and local healing traditions last. The tools employed by TCAM practitioners in diagnosis, research, pharmacy, marketing and education and training, which are seen to increasingly emulate those of allopathy, are sometimes inappropriate for use in therapeutic systems with widely divergent epistemologies, which call for distinct research paradigms. The coexistence of numerous systems of medicine, while offering the population greater choice, and presumably enhancing geographical access to health care as well, is often fraught with tensions related to the coexistence of philosophically disparate, even opposed, disciplines, with distinct and unaligned notions of evidence and efficacy, and ethical and operational challenges of the administration of a plural workforce.

“I Swear to God, I Only Want People Here Who Are Losers!” Cultural Dissonance and the (Problematic) Allure ofAzeroth

We use ethnographically informed survey and interview data to explore therapeutic and problematic play in the online World of Warcraft (WoW). We focus on how game-play in WoW is driven by shared and socially transmitted models of success that we conceptualize as cultural ideals. Our research reveals associations between having higher online compared to offline success, on the one hand, and gamers' reports about how their play both adds to and subtracts from their mental wellness, on the other. Fusing William Dressler's notion of "cultural consonance" (an individual's relative consistency with his or her culture) with Leon Festinger's "cognitive dissonance" (the tendency of individuals to suffer distress when they cannot eliminate incompatibilities in conflicting beliefs and attitudes), we develop the notion of "cultural dissonance," which in this context refers to how conflicts between online and offline lives, and also subsequent attempts to minimize the conflicts through psychological negotiations, impact gamers' mental health.

How religious status shapes psychological well-being: Cultural consonance as a measure of subcultural status among Brazilian Pentecostals

Research on subjective social status has long recognized that individuals occupy multiple social hierarchies, with socioeconomic status (SES) being but one. The issue, as such, has been to identify culturally meaningful measures of social status. Through cognitive anthropological theory and methods, I show that it is possible to identify multiple cultural models of “status,” and objectively measure an individual's level of adherence, or consonance, with each—effectively placing them within the multidimensional space of social hierarchies. Through a mixed qualitative and quantitative study of 118 Brazilian Pentecostals carried out from 2011 to 2012, I show that dominant and limitedly-distributed cultural models of status operate simultaneously and concurrently in the lives of those who hold them. Importantly, each marker of cultural status moderates the other's association with psychological well-being. I argue that the importance of a given social hierarchy is framed by cultural values. For Brazilian Pentecostals, their limitedly distributed model of religious status alters the influence of more dominant societal indicators on psychological well-being. The interaction between religious and secular lifestyle statuses on psychological health is stronger than the association of SES, effectively explaining 51% of the variance. This finding suggests that among some populations, limitedly distributed cultural models of status may be a dominant force in shaping measures of well-being.

Cultural consonance in leisure activities and self-rated health in six cities in China

The purpose of this study is to examine leisure constraints, a new variable termed cultural consonance in leisure (CCL), and leisure satisfaction as possible mediators in the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and self-rated health in six large cities in China. The hypothesis is that SES has a negative relationship with leisure constraints, that leisure constraints negatively influence CCL, that CCL positively affects leisure satisfaction, and that leisure satisfaction positively affects self-rated health. Structural equation modelling is used to evaluate the hypothesised relationships, and all but one of the relationships is supported. The results suggest that CCL may be a valuable construct to employ in future studies of constraints, leisure satisfaction and health.

The Experience of Old Age in West Sumatra, Indonesia: Culture Shift and Cultural Consonance in the Modern Era

The past four decades have seen enormous social change in Indonesia as the nation continues to experience rapid urbanization and social pressures in the globalized economy that have led to tensions between traditional cultures and the modern mainstream around the nation. This cultural shift has been felt strongly in West Sumatra, a region of Indonesia inhabited almost entirely by members of the matrilineal Minangkabau ethnic group. While the traditional social values of the area remain strong, they are eroding, and the Minang are becoming more like other Indonesians in terms of their family structure, occupations, and lifestyle. This has had a significant impact on the experience of old age as social and culture change has affected the traditional matrilineal structures that supported and ensured care for the elderly in past generations. This paper will describe the ways in which traditional institutions accommodated older individuals and describe how these systems have changed in the present day. Case studies across generations will be presented to illustrate the ways in which traditional matrilineal social structures are, and have been, perceived in the context of aging. Further, the paper will describe what this means for the elderly and their families in terms of cultural consonance in today’s society, and discussion will focus on the changing experience of old age in a society in transition against a backdrop of rapid urbanization and modernization.

Cultural Consonance, Religion and Psychological Distress in an Urban Community

Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate prototypes encoded in cultural models. Low cultural consonance is associated with higher psychological distress. Religion may moderate the association between cultural consonance and psychological distress. Brazil, with substantial variation in religion, is an important society for the examination of this hypothesis. Research was conducted in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, using a mixed-methods design. Measures of cultural consonance were derived using ethnographic methods and then applied in a survey of 271 individuals drawn from four distinct social strata. Low cultural consonance was associated with higher psychological distress in multiple regression analysis ( B = -.430, p < .001). Members of Pentecostal Protestant churches reported lower psychological distress independently of the effect of cultural consonance ( B = -.409, p < .05). There was no buffering effect of religion. Implications of these results for the study of religion and health are discussed.

Eighty years of growing up kāpo (blind) Māori: what can we learn about inclusive education in New Zealand?

This paper presents some of the results from a 2-year, qualitative study entitled Growing up kāpo Māori: Identity, whānau, and cultural well being. It explores the educational experiences of 10 Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand), who are kāpo (blind/vision impaired) of various ages up to the age of 80, and their whānau (family). In this research, four common themes emerged, including (1) visibility and invisibility, (2) cultural location and dislocation, (3) cultural consonance and dissonance, and (4) transformation and change. These themes are discussed in this paper in relation to the participants' educational experiences. Overall, schools had difficulty providing both culturally appropriate education and educational support for the participants' vision impairment. Inclusive education options for kāpo Māori tamariki/rangatahi and their whānau were limited. However, the participants articulated aspirations for education in their own communities, with their whānau that would value them as Māori who happen to also be kāpo. In order to realise these aspirations, the participants and their whānau moved not only between educational settings but also towns.

A formal anthropological view of motivation models of problematic MMO play: Achievement, social, and immersion factors in the context of culture

Yee (2006) found three motivational factors-achievement, social, and immersion-underlying play in massively multiplayer online role-playing games ("MMORPGs" or "MMOs" for short). Subsequent work has suggested that these factors foster problematic or addictive forms of play in online worlds. In the current study, we used an online survey of respondents (N = 252), constructed and also interpreted in reference to ethnography and interviews, to examine problematic play in the World of Warcraft (WoW; Blizzard Entertainment, 2004-2013). We relied on tools from psychological anthropology to reconceptualize each of Yee's three motivational factors in order to test for the possible role of culture in problematic MMO play: (a) For achievement, we examined how "cultural consonance" with normative understandings of success might structure problematic forms of play; (b) for social, we analyzed the possibility that developing overvalued virtual relationships that are cutoff from offline social interactions might further exacerbate problematic play; and (c) in relation to immersion, we examined how "dissociative" blurring of actual- and virtual-world identities and experiences might contribute to problematic patterns. Our results confirmed that compared to Yee's original motivational factors, these culturally sensitive measures better predict problematic forms of play, pointing to the important role of sociocultural factors in structuring online play.

How culture shapes the body: Cultural consonance and body mass in urban brazil

The aim of this article is to develop a model of how culture shapes the body, based on two studies conducted in urban Brazil. Research was conducted in 1991 and 2001 in four socioeconomically distinct neighborhoods. First, cultural domain analyses were conducted with samples of key informants. The cultural domains investigated included lifestyle, social support, family life, national identity, and food. Cultural consensus analysis was used to confirm shared knowledge in each domain and to derive measures of cultural consonance. Cultural consonance assesses how closely an individual matches the cultural consensus model for each domain. Second, body composition, cultural consonance, and related variables were assessed in community surveys. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the association of cultural consonance and body composition, controlling for standard covariates and competing explanatory variables. In 1991, in a survey of 260 individuals, cultural consonance had a curvilinear association with the body mass index that differed for men and women, controlling for sociodemographic and dietary variables. In 2001, in a survey of 267 individuals, cultural consonance had a linear association with abdominal circumference that differed for men and women, controlling for sociodemographic and dietary variables. In general, as cultural consonance increases, body mass index and abdominal circumference decline, more strongly for women than men. As individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, more closely approximate shared cultural models in socially salient domains, body composition also more closely approximates the cultural prototype of the body.

Cultural consonance: Linking culture, the individual and health

Cultural consonance: Linking culture, the individual and health

Does perceived stress mediate the effect of cultural consonance on depression?

The importance of appraisal in the stress process is unquestioned. Experience in the social environment that impacts outcomes such as depression are thought to have these effects because they are appraised as a threat to the individual and overwhelm the individual's capacity to cope. In terms of the nature of social experience that is associated with depression, several recent studies have examined the impact of cultural consonance. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, approximate the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Low cultural consonance is associated with more depressive symptoms both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In this paper we ask the question: does perceived stress mediate the effects of cultural consonance on depression? Data are drawn from a longitudinal study of depressive symptoms in the urban community of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. A sample of 210 individuals was followed for 2 years. Cultural consonance was assessed in four cultural domains, using a mixed-methods research design that integrated techniques of cultural domain analysis with social survey research. Perceived stress was measured with Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale. When cultural consonance was examined separately for each domain, perceived stress partially mediated the impact of cultural consonance in family life and cultural consonance in lifestyle on depressive symptoms. When generalized cultural consonance (combining consonance in all four domains) was examined, there was no evidence of mediation. These results raise questions about how culturally salient experience rises to the level of conscious reflection.

Cultural consonance and body morphology: Estimates with longitudinal data from an Amazonian society

Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual's actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002-2006 inclusive) from 791 adults in one society of foragers-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane'. We estimate the association between a standard measure of individual achievement of the cultural model, cultural consonance, and three indicators of body morphology. Drawing on research suggesting that in societies in the early stages of economic development an increase in socioeconomic status is associated with an increase in mean body mass, we expect to find a positive association between cultural consonance and three anthropometric measures. We found the expected positive association between cultural consonance and anthropometric measures-especially for men-only when using ordinary least square (OLS) regression models, but not when using fixed-effects regression models. The real magnitude of the association was low. The comparison of estimates from OLS and fixed-effect regression models suggests that previous findings on the effects of cultural consonance on body morphology using cross-sectional data should be read with caution because the association might be largely explained by fixed characteristics of individuals not accounted in OLS models.

Cultural Consonance and Psychological Well-Being. Estimates Using Longitudinal Data from an Amazonian Society

Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual's actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002-2006 inclusive) of 791 adults in one society of foragers-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane'. We estimate the association between a standard measure of individual achievement of the cultural model and (a) four indicators of psychological well-being (sadness, anger, fear and happiness) and (b) consumption of four potentially addictive substances (alcohol, cigarette, coca leaves and home-brewed beer) as indicators of stress behavior. After controlling for individual fixed effects, we found a negative association between individual achievement of the cultural model and psychological distress and a positive association between individual achievement of the cultural model and psychological well-being. Only the consumption of commercial alcohol bears the expected negative association with cultural consonance in material lifestyle, probably because the other substances analyzed have cultural values attached. Our work contributes to research on psychological health disparities by showing that a locally defined and culturally specific measure of lifestyle success is associated with psychological health.

A review of consensus analysis methods in consumer culture, organizational culture and national culture research

The cultural consensus model is a method that is used by anthropologists to study intracultural variance, intercultural differences and cultural consonance across a variety of contexts. In order to provide academic scholars who study consumer, organizational and national culture with an additional tool that could be used to triangulate on ethnographic conclusions, this paper reviews the conceptual and methodological foundations of the cultural consensus model. In addition, this paper identifies important considerations a researcher should bear in mind when using the cultural consensus model and discusses how the cultural consensus model both has been and could be used to study consumer culture, organizational culture and national culture research.

School Nurses: Positive Deviant Leaders in the School Setting

A variety of leadership theories are examined to support the idea that school nurses can be positive deviants in the school setting. Transformational leadership, situational leadership, and complexity theory can all be used by school nurses to create positive change in the school environment because all recognize the need for flexible leadership in a changing environment. The complex and chaotic nature of the school setting requires organizational leaders to be flexible and to have the ability to recognize and address its changing needs. The school nurse can develop personal power to be used as an appropriate agent for change using Benziger's 12-step process. Conflict and cultural consonance promotion provide opportunities for the school nurse to demonstrate leadership skills within the school community. Positive deviants can be found in any setting. They demonstrate winning behaviors that can be adopted by their peers. School nurses, in their unique role, can use their leadership behaviors to promote the health of their school environment.

Cultural consonance, a 5HT2A receptor polymorphism, and depressive symptoms: A longitudinal study of gene × culture interaction in urban Brazil

In this study in urban Brazil we examine, as a predictor of depressive symptoms, the interaction between a single nucleotide polymorphism in the 2A receptor in the serotonin system (-1438G/A) and cultural consonance in family life, a measure of the degree to which an individual perceives her family as corresponding to a widely shared cultural model of the prototypical family. A community sample of 144 adults was followed over a 2-year-period. Cultural consonance in family life was assessed by linking individuals' perceptions of their own families with a shared cultural model of the family derived from cultural consensus analysis. The -1438G/A polymorphism in the 2A serotonin receptor was genotyped using a standard protocol for DNA extracted from leukocytes. Covariates included age, sex, socioeconomic status, and stressful life events. Cultural consonance in family life was prospectively associated with depressive symptoms. In addition, the interaction between genotype and cultural consonance in family life was significant. For individuals with the A/A variant of the -1438G/A polymorphism of the 2A receptor gene, the effect of cultural consonance in family life on depressive symptoms over a 2-year-period was larger (beta = -0.533, P < 0.01) than those effects for individuals with either the G/A (beta = -0.280, P < 0.10) or G/G (beta = -0.272, P < 0.05) variants. These results are consistent with a process in which genotype moderates the effects of culturally meaningful social experience on depressive symptoms.

Cultural consonance and adult body composition in urban Brazil

In previous research in Brazil, we found socioeconomic and gender differences in body mass and percent body fat, consistent with a model in which individuals in higher socioeconomic strata, especially women, could achieve a cultural ideal of body size and shape. In this article, using new data, we examine these processes more precisely using measures of cultural consonance. Cultural consonance refers to the degree to which individuals approximate, in their own beliefs and behaviors, the shared prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in cultural models. We have found higher cultural consonance in several domains to be associated with health outcomes. Furthermore, there tends to be a general consistency in cultural consonance across domains. Here we suggest that measures of body composition can be considered indicators of individuals' success in achieving cultural ideals of the body, and that cultural consonance in several domains will be associated with body composition. Using waist circumference as an outcome, smaller waist size was associated with higher cultural consonance in lifestyle (beta = -0.311, P < 0.01) and higher cultural consonance in the consumption of high prestige foods (beta = -0.260, P < 0.01) for women (n = 161), but not for men (n = 106), controlling for age, family income, tobacco use, and dietary intake of protein and carbohydrates. Similar results were obtained using the body mass index and weight as outcomes, while there were no associations with height. These results help to illuminate the cultural mediation of body composition.