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How culture is incorporated into individuals' lives is a problem that has plagued the social sciences for centuries. This book examines the insights offered by approaching the question using a cognitive theory of culture. Culture and the Individual pulls together over twenty-five years of research on cultural consonance, defined as the degree to which individuals incorporate into their own beliefs and behaviors the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Starting with a critical overview of the treatment of culture and the individual in anthropology, Dressler goes on to make the case for adopting a cognitive theory of culture in researching the relationship, introducing the concept of cultural consonance as a solution. Placing the concept in its theoretical context, he examines both how cultural consonance can be measured and what it can reveal, focusing in particular on the field of health. Written in an accessible style by an experienced medical anthropologist who has spent his career researching and teaching on the subject of cultural consonance, this is an essential overview of the topic for students of all levels, as well as academics in neighboring fields

Cultural dimensions of health and behavior have been difficult to study because of limited theoretical and methodological models linking the cultural, the individual, and the biological. We employ a cognitive theory of culture to understand culture and health in an African American community in the southern United States. First, cultural consensus analysis is used to test for shared cultural models of lifestyles and social supports within the community. Then, the theoretical and operational construct of "cultural consonance" is used to assess the degree to which individuals behave in a way consistent with cultural models. Findings indicate that cultural consonance in lifestyle and social support combine synergistically in association with blood pressure. These associations of cultural consonance and health are not altered by taking into account a variety of other variables, indicating an independent association of cultural dimensions of behavior with health status. Implications of these results for culture theory are discussed, [culture theory, culture consensus analysis, cultural consonance, African American community, arterial blood pressure]

Few studies have examined beliefs and attitudes about injustice and discrimination within minority communities. Most research has emphasized the institutional consequences of discrimination, or the racial beliefs of the majority groups. In this study we examine attitudes about injustice and reactions to discriminatory acts within a Black community in the U.S. South. Beliefs and attitudes were found to cluster in three dimensions, including responses to personal discrimination, perceptions of political structures, and perceptions of major social institutions. Economic, social, and psychological variables accounted for 10-30% of the variance in these dimensions in regression analyses. Implications of these results for theory and policy are discussed.

The description and explanation of racial and ethnic health disparities are major initiatives of the public health research establishment. Black Americans suffer on nearly every measure of health in relation to white Americans. Five theoretical models have been proposed to explain these disparities: a racial-genetic model, a health-behavior model, a socioeconomic status model, a psychosocial stress model, and a structural-constructivist model. We selectively review literature on health disparities, emphasizing research on low birth weight and high blood pressure. The psychosocial stress model and the structural-constructivist model offer greatest promise to explain disparities. In future research, theoretical elaboration and operational specificity are needed to distinguish among three distinct factors: (a) genetic variants contributing to disease risk; (b) ethnoracial or folk racial categories masquerading as biology; and (c) ethnic group membership. Such elaboration is necessary to move beyond the conflation of these three distinct constructs that characterizes much of current research.

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.