ecological level

21:09 May 17, 2009 

OBJECTIVES: We examined variability in disease rates to gain understanding of the complex interactions between contextual socioeconomic factors and health. METHODS: We compared mortality rates between New York and California counties in the lowest and highest quartiles of socioeconomic status (SES), assessed rate variability between counties for various outcomes, and examined correlations between outcomes' sensitivity to SES and their variability. RESULTS: Outcomes with mortality rates that differed most by county SES were among those whose variability across counties was high (e.g., AIDS, homicide, cirrhosis). Lower-SES counties manifested greater variability among outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in health outcome variability reflect differences in SES impact on health. Health variability at the ecological level might reflect the impact of stressors on vulnerable populations.

15:53 May 16, 2009 

The term ecological has been used in many different ways and so it is best to begin by specifying more precisely what I mean by an “ecological level” of description and explanation. First, as just indicated, an ecological level is naturalistic, as opposed to purely conceptual or a priori. This does not mean that there is no place for conceptual analysis or a priori reflection, but it does mean that such investigations must be pursued in close collaboration with visual science.

Naturalism is not equivalent to reductionism, however. Thus, a second crucial feature of the ecological level is its commitment to the view .... that the animal is not simply a collection of neurona and psychopsysical processes, but most properly also a perceived and acting subject. The types of generalization that can be stated at the ecological leve, accordingly, include not only generalization about the psychophysical organization and physiological structure of the perceiving animal, but also ones about the behavioural interactions of an animal as a whole in its environment.