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Making Visible the Invisible

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Biological Measures of Human Experience across the Lifespan

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Abstract

This volume explores methods used by social scientists and human biologists to understand fundamental aspects of human experience. We are interested in phenomena experienced by individuals that are often “invisible” to one’s self or others. Some of these phenomena are intricately associated with cognitive processes so that social scientists must, in a sense, get into the heads of other people to understand how they experience the world. This involves verbal and nonverbal communication, or an examination of biological processes that underlie the cognitive activity involved with the experience. Other “invisible” phenomena are not usually associated with subjective experience but can be made visible to individuals through objective measures. Biological markers have taken on importance as tools for enhancing measurement and our understanding of the life experiences of others. This book is organized by stages of the human life span: beginnings, adulthood, and aging. We explore how we learn about particular kinds of experience—including pain, stress, activity levels, sleep quality, memory, and menopausal hot flashes—that have traditionally relied upon self-reports, but are subject to inter-individual differences in self-awareness or culture-based notions of what experiences to note or report. We also examine other ways in which normally “invisible” phenomena can be made visible, such as the caloric content of foods, blood pressure, early life experiences, growth, nutritional status, and bone health. The use of biological markers to understand human experience is one of the most difficult, exciting, and important areas of scientific research into the human condition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI, USA

    Daniel E. Brown

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Lynnette Leidy Sievert

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  1. Daniel E. Brown
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  2. Lynnette Leidy Sievert
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Correspondence to Daniel E. Brown .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    Lynnette Leidy Sievert

  2. University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaii, USA

    Daniel E. Brown

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Brown, D.E., Sievert, L.L. (2016). Making Visible the Invisible. In: Sievert, L., Brown, D. (eds) Biological Measures of Human Experience across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44103-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44103-0_1

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