The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness. Human agency is characterized by a number of core features that operate through phenomenal and functional consciousness. These include the temporal extension of agency through intentionality and forethought, self-regulation by self-reactive influence, and self-reflectiveness about one's capabilities, quality of functioning, and the meaning and purpose of one's life pursuits. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. Growing transnational embeddedness and interdependence are placing a premium on collective efficacy to exercise control over personal destinies and national life.

/pdf/social-cognitive-theory-an-agentic-perspective-hguh0k9i9z.pdf

Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience, a construct connoting the maintenance of positive adaptation by individuals despite experiences of significant adversity. As empirical research on resilience has burgeoned in recent years, criticisms have been levied at work in this area. These critiques have generally focused on ambiguities in definitions and central terminology; heterogeneity in risks experienced and competence achieved by individuals viewed as resilient; instability of the phenomenon of resilience; and concerns regarding the usefulness of resilience as a theoretical construct. We address each identified criticism in turn, proposing solutions for those we view as legitimate and clarifying misunderstandings surrounding those we believe to be less valid. We conclude that work on resilience possesses substantial potential for augmenting the understanding of processes affecting at-risk individuals. Realization of the potential embodied by this construct, however, will remain constrained without continued scientific attention to some of the serious conceptual and methodological pitfalls that have been noted by skeptics and proponents alike.

/pdf/the-construct-of-resilience-a-critical-evaluation-and-2zm15ij070.pdf

The Construct of Resilience: A Critical Evaluation and Guidelines for Future Work

Cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures: literature review and proposed guidelines.

Major health care problems such as patient dissatisfaction, inequity of access to care, and spiraling costs no longer seem amenable to traditional biomedical solutions. Concepts derived from anthropologic and cross-cultural research may provide an alternative framework for identifying issues that require resolution. A limited set of such con- cepts is described and illustrated, including a fundamental distinction between disease and illness, and the notion of the cultural construction of clinical reality. These social science concepts can be developed into clinical strategies with direct application in practice and teaching. One such strategy is outlined as an example of a clinical social science capa- ble of translating concepts from cultural anthropology into clinical language for practical application. The implemen- tation of this approach in medical teaching and practice requires more support, both curricular and financial.

https://focus.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/foc.4.1.140

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons from Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

1. The global context of well-being 2. Mental illness and psychiatric services 3. Suicide 4. Substance abuse 5. Violence 6. Dislocation 7. Children and youth 8. Women 9. The elderly 10. Behavior and health 11. Conclusions and an agenda for action 12. An agenda for research

World Mental Health: Problems and Priorities in Low-Income Countries

Major health care problems such as patient dissatisfaction, inequity of access to care, and spiraling costs no longer seem amenable to traditional biomedical solutions. Concepts derived from anthropologic and cross-cultural research may provide an alternative framework for identifying issues that require resolution. A limited set of such concepts is described and illustrated, including a fundamental distinction between disease and illness, and the notion of the cultural construction of clinical reality. These social science concepts can be developed into clinical strategies with direct application in practice and teaching. One such strategy is outlined as an example of a clinical social science capable of translating concepts from cultural anthropology into clinical language for practical application. The implementation of this approach in medical teaching and practice requires more support, both curricular and financial.

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons From Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

Depression is one of the most common and most debilitating psychiatric disorders. It is usually recognized when patients present with clear-cut psychiatric symptoms, but many depressed patients hav...

Leon Eisenberg

Papers

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons from Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

World Mental Health: Problems and Priorities in Low-Income Countries

Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons From Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

Treating depression and anxiety in primary care. Closing the gap between knowledge and practice.

Early infantile autism, 1943-1955.