Ethnographic Methods for Identifying Cultural Concepts of Distress: Developing Reliable and Valid Measures
Dados Bibliográficos
| AUTOR(ES) | |
|---|---|
| AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) | Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA, Department of Anthropology and Geography, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, University of Oregon, a Communication Studies 3251 , Arizona State University West , 4701 W. Thunderbird Road, Phoenix, AZ, 85069, USA E-mail:, UCSD/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) University of California San Diego USA, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA |
| ANO | 2023 |
| TIPO | Artigo |
| PERIÓDICO | Field Methods |
| ISSN | 1525-822X |
| E-ISSN | 1552-3969 |
| EDITORA | Annual Reviews (United States) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1525822x221113178 |
| CITAÇÕES | 2 |
| ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
Resumo
We review ethnographic methods that allow researchers to assess distress in a culturally sensitive manner. We begin with an overview of standardized biomedical and psychological approaches to assessing distress cross-culturally. We then focus on literature describing the development of reliable and valid culturally sensitive assessment tools that can serve as complements or alternatives to biomedical categories and diagnostic frameworks. The methods we describe are useful in identifying forms of suffering—expressed in culturally salient idioms of distress—that might be misidentified by biomedical classifications. We highlight the utility of a cognitive anthropological theoretical approach for developing measures that attend to local cultural categories of knowledge and experience. Attending to cultural insider perspectives is necessary because expressions of distress, thresholds of tolerance for distress, expectations about stress inherent in life, conceptions of the good life, symptom expression, and modes of help-seeking vary across cultures.