An embodied approach to gender in the construction of pain in everyday life.
Item
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Title
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An embodied approach to gender in the construction of pain in everyday life.
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Identifier
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AAI3204986
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identifier
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3204986
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Creator
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Steinmayer, Karen M.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Leanne G. Rivlin
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Anthropology, Cultural | Health Sciences, Public Health
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Abstract
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This study's goals are to investigate the roles of psychological, social and cultural factors in women's and men's constructions of pain and to contribute to a biopsychosocio-cultural model of health and illness. The research draws on narrative theory, life story construction and structuration to explore how gender and human pain are intersubjectively constructed through practices and discourses which occur in real places during everyday life. Four methods, (1) writing two narratives; (2) drawing two maps depicting experiences of pain when participants were seven through eleven and twelve through seventeen; the Life Story Interview, and the standardized Coping Styles Questionnaire, address three research questions: (1) How are women's and men's constructions of pain similar and different? (2) In what types of places do women and men have experiences of pain? (3) What do women and men do to deal with pain? Eleven women and eight men, ages twenty-four through forty-eight, participated. (1) Participants displayed awareness of the Western biomedical separation between physical and emotional pain. (2) Participants weren't able to maintain this distinction. (3) Participants connected pain to many aspects of their lives. (4) The ways families dealt with pain was related to the ways participants reported dealing with pain as adults. (5) The second drawing was an important point in the interview. Participants constructions appeared to change at about age eleven. Physical and emotional pain became connected and tied to identity, gender, ethnicity and class. Gender emerged as an important factor: (1) Women reported talking to others is important to them while men reported not liking to talk about pain. (2) Men, but not women, talked about a syndrome which linked pain sensations to emotions, sense of self and the importance of physical activity. (3) Women were comfortable talking about relations between physical and emotional pain, while men were not. (4) Female participants were more likely to portray themselves in or close to their homes, including in bedrooms and in bed, while male participants were more likely to depict themselves in outdoor environments farther from their homes. The construct of hegemony and gender identity theory are employed to explain these results.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
