Thesis
The neuroendocrine reactivity to social defeat : threat/challenge appraisals and socio-economic status
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2023
- Thesis identifier
- T16747
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201894435
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Extensive evidence demonstrates that lower socio-economic status (SES) is associated with poorer health and reduced opportunities to fully participate in society. Reasons for this exist within a latticework of socio-cultural, economic, political, and biological influences, in concert with psychological processes. The social gradient in health robustly illustrates how inequalities and social rank predict distribution of disease. Marmot (2004) argues that where people stand in relation to others in society is crucial for an individual’s health and well-being. Similarly, Wilkinson and Pickett (2018) suggest the social gradient in health results from social rank and relative position on the social ladder, with subordination linked to limited resources and lack of control, rather than from health behaviours or access to medical care. However, neither of those theoretical positions empirically test specific biopsychosocial mechanisms through which status affects health. By exploring endocrine reactivity in response to an experimental social defeat task, cognitive moderators of this link, and the relationships of key psychosocial factors to endocrine reactivity and thereby health, this thesis advances research of health inequalities. It does so by providing insight into the concrete neuroendocrine mechanisms underpinning the social gradient in health. Although this study does not provide any firm, definitive conclusions about differences in endocrine reactivity and cognitive appraisals of the task between SES groups, it suggests that androgenic and glucocorticoid systems might indeed be involved in the social gradient of health. However, future research exploring those relationships on a larger scale is required. The results further demonstrate that the overall circulating T levels were higher in the high SES compared to low SES group in both competition conditions. Participants also display higher overall levels of circulating C levels on the day of the experiment compared to the baseline day. Moreover, the thesis suggests that testosterone (T) potentially plays an important role in the underpinning neuroendocrine reactivity that affects behavioural implications of social defeat/victory, before situating these within the broader contextual framework of socio-economic disadvantage (SED). Accordingly, whilst the relationship between T reactivity and motivational states was not found to be statistically significant, this thesis argues that public and health policy interventions should take cognisance of the behavioural and biological implications of social defeat within lower SES groups. Doing so can aid in the minimisation of those consequences, and harvest positive health and behavioural outcomes which in turn respond to health inequality.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Greener, Ian
- Henderson, Marion
- Burns, Harry
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2023
Las relaciones
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PDF of thesis T16747 | 2024-04-16 | Público | Descargar |