Distance from a Cultural Prototype and Psychological Distress in Urban Brazil: A Model

Abstract

The metaphor of culture as a space or environment of meaning is widely employed. Going beyond metaphor, we present a model of culture as a 3-dimensional Euclidean space, using data from Brazil on cultural models of life goals. The dimensions of this space are defined by degree of sharing of culture (cultural competence); alternate configurations of that shared meaning (residual agreement); and social practice (cultural consonance). A cultural distance metric calculated within those dimensions identifies an individuals’ proximity to prototypical goals; greater distance from these goals is associated with higher psychological distress. Cultural distance is in turn influenced by one’s sense of personal agency. Finally, in a set of open-ended interviews, the more individuals employ spatial metaphors in talking about culturally defined life goals, the higher their sense of personal agency and cultural consonance. This model moves the discussion of culture as a space of meaning from metaphor to measurement.

Distance from a cultural model of substance use risk, internalization, and self-stigma in urban Brazil

“…These results are a further example of the utility of what Dressler et al (2023) call a “spatial representation of culture.” In this conceptualization, we as individuals are seen as inhabiting a cultural space, defined by the parameters of the cultural model for any specific domain. In an analysis of culturally constructed adult developmental life goals, Dressler et al found that individuals who were distant from the prototype of one achieving those life goals reported higher psychological distress, due to their perceived (by self and others) difficulty in navigating that social space.…”

“…Furthermore, the idea of “cultural distance” will be employed operationally here, not just metaphorically. There is evidence that in some cultural domains, people experience culture as a space they navigate ( Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 ; Dressler et al, 2023 ), determining their position in that space relative to prototypes encoded in cultural models. Actually measuring the distance of persons under treatment from a general population model in a multidimensional array will allow us to explore this theoretical orientation further, especially in terms of how this might influence their subjective well-being, as measured by their experience of stigma.…”

“Clinical trials are space travel”: Factors of psychological response to recurrence among oncologists enrolling patients in treatment optimization trials

“…More recently, there has been a greater appreciation for how disagreement and alternative experiences are patterned within a defined population 21,22 . In other words, there are shared experiences (e.g., patient recurrence after treatment) that involve shared considerations (e.g., factors that impact psychological/emotional response) that may be idiosyncratically employed by individuals.…”

Community Series In Mental-Health-Related Stigma and Discrimination: Prevention, Role, and Management Strategies, volume II

“…Furthermore, the idea of "cultural distance" will be employed operationally here, not just metaphorically. There is evidence that in some cultural domains, people experience culture as a space they navigate (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980;Dressler et al, 2023), determining their position in that space relative to prototypes encoded in cultural models. Actually measuring the distance of persons under treatment from a general population model in a multidimensional array will allow us to explore this theoretical orientation further, especially in terms of how this might influence their subjective well-being, as measured by their experience of stigma.…”