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Research Agenda My broad research interests reflect my substantive and methodological training at Duke University. Within the social psychological tradition, I am interested in the structural foundations of cultural identity meanings and the distribution of meanings throughout society. The study of emotion and mental health comprise my primary research interests in the medical sociology tradition, although I also have interests in inequality of medical treatment and outcomes (especially in dental health). I believe that much promising research lies at the intersection of social psychological and medical sociology traditions. Dissertation Research My dissertation research focuses on the cultural consensus debate through an examination of the meanings individuals associate with social identities. Specifically, I bring an ecological theory of the distribution of social entities to bear on the question. An important hallmark of this perspective is the importance of social networks for transmission, recruitment and retention of individuals. From this structural perspective, I contend that the distribution of meanings throughout social space parallels the distribution of other social entities such as occupations, musical tastes, and cultural forms. These types of social entities require an important resource, individuals, for their longevity, compete with one another for this resource and actively respond to changes in the social environment to ensure their survival. I argue that social networks are paramount for understanding the transmission and distribution of cultural identity meanings, in a manner similar to other social entities Social networks naturally knife off portions, or niches, of the population that include highly similar individuals. The social network niches provide the foundation and conduit for the transmission of identity meanings. As such, my dissertation research demonstrates that identity meaning niches characterize highly complex and diverse societies like the United States. The data collected to test my theoretical hypotheses are the first modern affect control theory dataset to include significant race and social class variation. Social Psychology In my article, “Gender and Self-Identity: An Experiential Sampling Study of Identity Meanings for Men and Women,” I examine the influence on conformity to gender norms for individuals’ identity meanings. This article uses survey and experiential data to determine how the process of “doing gender” influences the meanings individuals associate with their identities. The results reveal two important themes. Outside of interactions, women consistently view themselves as less valued and powerless actors. Although this pattern resurfaces during interactions, women who adhere to cultural masculinity norms overcome their position of initial disadvantage. Further, the results suggest that members of racial and ethnic minorities view themselves as less powerful and less valued actors and that this effect is particularly pronounced for women of color. I believe that the implications of these findings hold particular promise for understanding the racial and gender gap in self-esteem and depression. Ambiguity as a Status Characteristic. Status characteristics theory, a prominent social psychological research paradigm, investigates how valued status characteristics, such as sex and race, influence interactions and the evaluations of individuals in small groups. I developed a research program to extend the theoretical scope conditions of status characteristics theory beyond the binary categorization of individuals (black/white, male/female to include ambiguity, on any of the dimensions, as a status characteristic. The relaxing of gender norms in style, mannerisms and presentation of self create a social world in which individuals constantly blur the distinction between male and female. Similarly, adoption of a multi-racial option on the 2000 Census suggests that the repeal of de jure segregation and miscegenation laws, among other factors, resulted in an increasingly diverse racial/ethnic country. These changes blur previously clear sex and race boundaries rendering many of the cognitive heuristics individuals use less efficient for interpreting the social world. The aim of the research program is to determine how cultural and demographic changes, and the subsequent blurring of boundaries, influence the status and evaluations of individuals in small groups. In my collaborative book chapter “Gender Identity Recognition and Task Performance,” I demonstrate that casual exposure to sex ambiguous individuals creates a significant amount of cognitive disruption. Not surprisingly, the results of this experimental study reveal that the sex classification of a sex ambiguous person requires significantly more time than the classification of a sex stereotypical person. Perhaps of more interest, the results indicate that the disruption is pervasive and influences not only response times, but also accuracy on subsequent cognitive tasks. The next step in this experimental research agenda involves several elaborations of the sex ambiguity condition, including, but not limited to, providing real-time feedback to participants to determine how such feedback influences cognitive processing and the evaluation of ambiguous others. Further, and perhaps most importantly, the research program extends beyond sex, to determine if these processes occur in a similar fashion for other important socio-demographic characteristics such as age, social class and race. Medical Sociology The Intersection Finally, public health and sociological literatures document a consistent racial gap in use of health care. Some evidence suggests that health insurance does not entirely account for the disparity. As such, scholars devote considerable effort to elucidating the mechanisms that contribute to the racial gap in health care utilization. Specifically, some scholars suggest that African American patients view physicians and other members of medical community as being unconcerned and disinterested in their illness experiences. Still others suggest that the historical legacy of mistreatment of African Americans results in feelings of cynicism and distrust that dissuades African Americans from entering medical situations. Although many of the proposed explanations are only marginally successful in explaining the racial gap, I believe that the tools of social psychology, namely the quantification of identity meanings and the study of emotional responses to social interaction may prove useful for this ongoing dialogue. Specifically, I argue that the cynicism and feelings of distrust reside at an unconscious level and reveal themselves through significant racial differences in the meanings for medical identities. Further, understanding the implications of these differences is only truly realized through interaction simulations. Fortunately, my dissertation data, the first of its kind, permits an examination of racial differences and interaction simulation to test these hypotheses.
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