Biological measures of human experience across the lifespan: Making visible the invisible

Abstract

This volume explores methods used by social scientists and human biologists to understand fundamental aspects of human experience. It is organized by stages of the human lifespan: beginnings, adulthood, and aging. Explored are particular kinds of experiences - 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 expectations. The volume also examines other ways in which normally “invisible” phenomena can be made visible, such as the caloric content of foods, blood pressure, fecundity, growth, nutritional status, genotypes, and bone health. All of the chapters in this book address the means by which social scientists and human biologists measure subjective and objective experience.