Introduction to biosocial medicine: the social, psychological, and biological determinants of human behavior and well-being

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 53-4392-53-4392
Author(s):  
Quan Gao ◽  
Orlando Woods ◽  
Xiaomei Cai

This paper explores how the intersection of masculinity and religion shapes workplace well-being by focusing on Christianity and the social construction of masculinity among factory workers in a city in China. While existing work on public and occupational health has respectively acknowledged masculinity’s influences on health and the religious and spiritual dimensions of well-being, there have been limited efforts to examine how variegated, and especially religious, masculinities influence people’s well-being in the workplace. Drawing on ethnography and in-depth interviews with 52 factory workers and 8 church leaders and factory managers, we found that: (1) Variegated masculinities were integrated into the factory labor regime to produce docile and productive bodies of workers. In particular, the militarized and masculine cultures in China’s factories largely deprived workers of their dignity and undermined their well-being. These toxic masculinities were associated with workers’ depression and suicidal behavior. (2) Christianity not only provided social and spiritual support for vulnerable factory workers, but also enabled them to construct a morally superior Christian manhood that phytologically empowered them and enhanced their resilience to exploitation. This paper highlights not only the gender mechanism of well-being, but also the ways religion mediates the social-psychological construction of masculinity.


Author(s):  
Paola Corrente

Religion and economy have had a very important role in shaping society and their connection to social matters has been present since the very appearance of money and birth of economic activities. In antiquity, the bond between religion and economy was very strong because ancient world was symbolic and was embedded with magic and religious ideas: economy was part of this “wholeness”, because it inherited from the past the social practices aimed at the well-being of people, which were under the direct protection of the gods. The aim of my paper, hence, is to analyze the religious dimensions of money and economy in ancient societies, following the perspective of philosophy and mythology. Through the guide of a careful observer of human behavior, the great philosopher Aristotle, both disciplines can give interesting insights on the effect economy can have on society. The background for my research will be the cultures of ancient Mediterranean world, in particular, Greece and Mesopotamia, for we have a considerable amount of documents and literary works, whereas, regarding the methodology, I will approach the texts from an historical and comparative perspective.


2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang-Ming Hsieh

Although the effects of income and age on subjective well-being have been widely studied, research on the effects of income and age on financial satisfaction, a major life domain to which income has direct relevance, remains limited. Analyzing data from the General Social Surveys, this article empirically examined the effects of income and age on financial satisfaction. These findings suggest that the social-psychological mechanisms underlying the age differences in the effects of income on financial satisfaction might not reflect a clear-cut status attainment versus status maintenance framework. The findings also served to caution future financial satisfaction research in the choice of income measures and the age grouping.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catho Jacobs ◽  
Dorien Van De Mieroop ◽  
Colette Van Laar

Abstract We present a case study of a small talk sequence in a Belgian workplace between two female colleagues with a migration background, in which they share stories with each other on racial micro-aggressions they personally experienced. We draw on the social practice approach and focus on the narrators’ identity work in this interaction. We found that the narrators construct stories in which powerless and outgroup identities are projected upon them in the storyworld, but by means of which more empowered identities and an ingroup with the interlocutor are talked into being in the storytelling world. Interestingly, these findings can be linked to the rejection-identification dynamic. This social psychological model shows that individuals who experienced discrimination are able to buffer negative consequences to their psychological well-being by identifying with the group that is discriminated against. This article adds to this earlier research by showing the crucial role of language, in particular of storytelling and small talk, in this rejection-identification dynamic.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document