Biosocial Surveys (2008) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
17 Multilevel Investigations: Conceptual Mappings and Perspectives--John T. Cacioppo, Gary G. Berntson, and Ronald A. Thisted
17 Multilevel Investigations: Conceptual Mappings and Perspectives--John T. Cacioppo, Gary G. Berntson, and Ronald A. Thisted
Pages 367-380
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 367... ...
Improvements in living standards, public health efforts, leisure and lifestyles, and medical technology have made population health a notable success story in developed nations. Along with this improvement came an increase in life expectancy and a shift in the kinds of illnesses that cause death.
|
From page 368... ...
Before delving into these points, however, we describe briefly the nature of the data sets increasingly available to biological and social scientists. CONFLUENCE OF DATA MATRICES The contributions to this volume demonstrate that scientific and technological advances have dramatically altered the data available to study complex behaviors and healthy aging.
|
From page 369... ...
Recent "epidemics," such as obesity and cardiovascular disease, cannot be fully explained in terms of genes alone, because major shifts in the human genome require much longer periods of time to unfold. These new health challenges require consideration of environmental exposures (e.g., the deployment of soda machines and fast food options in public schools)
|
From page 370... ...
Finally, spatially multidimensional electromagnetic, hemodynamic, and optical imaging devices, coupled with temporally precise electrophysiological methodologies, now make it possible to track changes in brain activity with impressive spatial and temporal resolution. The resulting data structures contain millions of elements that can span multiple levels of organization (Herrington, Sutton, and Miller, 2007)
|
From page 371... ...
It is important to recognize, however, that not every association identified in the Framingham study proved to be robust or informative, and that for every Framingham study, there are others whose scientific yield is disappointing. The associations uncovered in correlative research, especially atheoretical correlative investigations, run a special risk of yielding false discoveries (i.e., nonreplicable associations)
|
From page 372... ...
Moving from the specification of associations to mechanisms is therefore an important objective for future research using biological measures in social science surveys. The correlative approach may generate variables (e.g., genes, neurophysiological circuits, demographic or lifestyle factors)
|
From page 373... ...
produce high correlations, whereas association studies involving elements characterized by a null relation Figure 17-1 yield an essentially zero correlation. The strength of the association between elements across levels of representation can vary a great deal, however, for mappings (2)
|
From page 374... ...
Even if we knew that variations in stress were associated with corresponding variations in salivary cortisol, inferring stress based on cortisol represents an error in interpretation because it ignores the possibility that there are other antecedent conditions that could also produce variations in cortisol. That is, it ignores the specificity of the association or mapping to the construct about which one would like to draw the inference.
|
From page 375... ...
For example, blood sugar levels will vary in a predictable fashion for several hours after ingesting a dosage of glucose. Deviations from the normative values in blood sugar level across time mark a possible problem in metabolism because the blood glucose tolerance test (a procedure for mapping the glucose–blood sugar association)
|
From page 376... ...
, because high PSA can be produced by active but noncancerous prostate cells. Said differently, the sensitivity and specificity of PSA for prostate cell activity are high, but the sensitivity and specificity of prostate cell activity for prostate cancer are more modest.
|
From page 377... ...
Outcome and concomitant mappings enable systematic inferences to be drawn about theoretical constructs based only on hypotheticodeductive logic. Specifically, when two theoretical models differ in predictions regarding one or more out
|
From page 378... ...
To the extent that this is the case, investigators who assume rather than establish an invariant relationship between elements in the social and biological domains are at risk for predictably faulty interpretations. Investigators who incorporate cortisol measures in their social science surveys to indicate variations in stress, simply because stress and cortisol are correlated, are unlikely to contribute much to scientific understanding.
|
From page 379... ...
The goal of this chapter has been to outline a simple model to aid thinking about elements from different levels of organization. In sum, the identification of associations and mechanisms in the complex multilevel data sets increasingly available depends on the accurate mapping of biological measures to social and behavioral constructs in surveys.
|
From page 380... ...
. A change of heart: How the Framingham heart study helped unravel the mysteries of cardiovascular disease.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.