Each class will have two parts.
The first half will be dedicated to the introduction of key concepts and highlighting recent discoveries regarding the topics of that class.
The second half of each class will focus on providing a space for discussion in which the students are expected to demonstrate engagement with the course material and delve further into the readings assigned for that week.
Discussion questions about readings 20%
Discussion facilitation 10%
Attendance and participation 10%
Exams (2, 15% each) 30%
Students’ final presentations 30%
1-page presentation of the topic: 5%
2-page outline and sources: 5%
final presentation: 20%
This course is organized into four units.
1) We will focus on key aspects of the theory of evolution that will allow us to understand the origins and functions of the stress response in animals.
2) We will explore multiple biological signatures of stress in the body, highlighting the limitations and possibilities of studying different biological materials.
3) We will apply our learnings about the biology of stress to evaluate different cases of social inequity and health disparities, including topics such as gender, socioeconomic status, race, environment, and trauma.
4) This unit will be dedicated to student presentations. Students will present a comprehensive, evidenced-based critical evaluation of a company, product, mass media platform, or film that offers solutions to stress or to its associated symptoms.
[SUBJECT TO CHANGE]
Class 1: Introduction. The concept of stress: history, definition, and misunderstandings. What does stress mean to you?
- Sapolsky, R. M. (1994) chapter 1. “Why don’t zebras get ulcers?”
Class 2: Overview of evolutionary theory. Stress from an evolutionary standpoint. The fight or flight response. Is the stress response an adaptation or maladaptation?
- Sapolsky, R. M. (1994) chapter 2: “Glands, gooseflesh and hormones”.
- J. Silk & R. Boyd, “How humans evolved”, chapter 1. 10th edition. New York: W.W. Norton.
Class 3: Differences between acute and chronic stress. Stress vs Anxiety. The concept of allostatic load. When you can’t activate the stress response: Addison’s disease, Shy-drager syndrome.
- Edes, A. N., & Crews, D. E. (2017). Allostatic load and biological anthropology. American journal of physical anthropology, 162 Suppl 63, 44–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23146
o Optional: Del Giudice, M., Gangestad, S. W., & Kaplan, H. S. (2016). Life history theory and evolutionary psychology. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology: Foundations (p. 88–114). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Class 4: How to identify and quantify stress in humans (part 1): biomechanical stress, nutritional stress, stress and development.
- Nelson, R.G. (2018). Stress and growth. The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology. doi:10.1002/9781118584538.ieba0380
o Optional: Nelson, R.G. (2009), Adult health outcomes and their implications for experiences of childhood nutritional stress in Jamaica. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 21: 671-678. doi:10.1002/ajhb.20963
o Optional: Belsky J, Houts RM, Fearon RMP. Infant Attachment Security and the Timing of Puberty: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis. Psychological Science. 2010;21(9):1195-1201. doi:10.1177/0956797610379867
Class 5: How to identify and quantify stress in humans (part 2): glucocorticoids, epigenetics, telomere length. *(submit 1-page presentation topic: 5% of final grade)
- Jiang, Y., Da, W., Qiao, S., Zhang, Q., Li, X., Ivey, G., & Zilioli, S. (2019). Basal cortisol, cortisol reactivity, and telomere length: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 103, 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.01.022
o Optional: Kundakovic, M., Champagne, F. Early-Life Experience, Epigenetics, and the Developing Brain. Neuropsychopharmacol 40, 141–153 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2014.140
o Optional: Schutte, N. S., & Malouff, J. M. (2016). The Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Telomere Length: A Meta-analysis. Stress and health: journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 32(4), 313–319. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2607
Class 6: Stress and immunity. Antibodies against the Epstein-Barr virus. Is the microbiome the link between psychological stress, immunity, and disease?
- Sapolsky, R. M. (1994). Chapter 8. “Immunity, stress and disease”
o Optional: McDade T. W. (2002). Status incongruity in Samoan youth: a biocultural analysis of culture change, stress, and immune function. Medical anthropology quarterly, 16(2), 123–150. https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.2002.16.2.123
o Optional: Redpath, N., Rackers, H. S., & Kimmel, M. C. (2019). The Relationship Between Perinatal Mental Health and Stress: a Review of the Microbiome. Current psychiatry reports, 21(3), 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-019-0998-z
Class 7: Exam 1.
Stress, health, and socioeconomic status.
- Documentary: Adelman, Larry, et al. Unnatural causes: is inequality making us sick? San Francisco, California: California Newsreel, 2008.
- No readings.
Class 8: Stress, health, and socioeconomic status part 2.
- Goette, L., et al. (2015) Stress pulls us apart: Anxiety leads to differences in competitive confidence under stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 54, 115-123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.01.019
o Optional: Kopp, M. S., Skrabski, A., Székely, A., Stauder, A., & Williams, R. (2007). Chronic stress and social changes: socioeconomic determination of chronic stress. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1113, 325–338. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1391.006
o Optional: Lock, Margaret. (2015). Comprehending the body in the era of the epigenome. Current anthropology. 56:2. 151-163.
Class 9: Stress, health and environmental injustice in a changing climate. Water and food insecurity. *(submit 2-page outline and sources to be used in final presentation: 5% of final grade)
- Wutich, A. and Bewis, A. (2014) Food, water and scarcity: toward a broader anthropology of resource insecurity. Current Anthropology 55(4), 444-468.
o Optional: Niewöhner, J., Lock, M. Situating local biologies: Anthropological perspectives on environment/human entanglements. BioSocieties 13, 681–697 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-017-0089-5
o Ennis-McMillan M. C. (2001). Suffering from water: social origins of bodily distress in a Mexican community. Medical anthropology quarterly, 15(3), 368–390. https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.2001.15.3.368
Class 10: Stress, health and racism.
- Gravlee, C.C. (2009), How race becomes biology: Embodiment of social inequality. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 139: 47-57. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20983
o Optional: Doamekpor LA, Dinwiddie GY. Allostatic load in foreign-born and US-born blacks: evidence from the 2001-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(3):591-597. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302285
o Gravlee CC, Non AL, Mulligan CJ (2009) Genetic Ancestry, Social Classification, and Racial Inequalities in Blood Pressure in Southeastern Puerto Rico. PLoS ONE 4(9): e6821. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006821
Class 11: Stress, health and gender
- Fausto-Sterling, A. (2012). Sex/gender: Biology in a social world. New York: Routledge. Chapter 1-4.
o Optional: Wutich A. (2009). Intrahousehold disparities in women and men's experiences of water insecurity and emotional distress in urban Bolivia. Medical anthropology quarterly, 23(4), 436–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1387.2009.01072.x
Class 12: Intergenerational inheritance of trauma. Buffering effect of social support.
Readings: (choose one article)
- Champagne, F. and Meaney, M. (2007). Transgenerational effects of social environment on variations in care and behavioral response to novelty. Behavioral neuroscience. Vol. 121, No. 6. 1353-1363.
- Phillips-Beck, W., Sinclair, S., Campbell, R., Star, … (2019). Early-life origins of disparities in chronic diseases among Indigenous youth: pathways to recovering health disparities from intergenerational trauma. Journal of developmental origins of health and disease, 10(1), 115–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2040174418000661
- Batchelor, V., & Pang, T. Y. (2019). HPA axis regulation and stress response is subject to intergenerational modification by paternal trauma and stress. General and comparative endocrinology, 280, 47–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2019.04.010
- Yehuda, R., & Lehrner, A. (2018). Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. World psychiatry: official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 17(3), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20568
Class 13: Stress, the market and mass media. Stress management as a commodity.
Student’s presentations.
Class 14: Final exam