Doctoral Dissertation Research: Culture, Symbolic Interaction, and the Cancer Survivor

由于癌症治疗的侵入性，痛苦和经常毁容以及对复发的不确定性和恐惧，幸存者不太可能在癌症治疗后简单地回到他们的旧生活。癌症等严重疾病的破坏性本质为研究自我构建过程提供了独特的机会。 直觉上，关于癌症存活率的信息（体现在其他癌症患者身上，在与朋友谈论癌症时传达，或者在癌症筹款活动中看到）将影响理解癌症的过程。 然而，根据经验，我们不知道癌症的公众意义如何塑造幸存者的经历。 此外，由于癌症的许多社会表征针对特定形式的癌症，我们可能会认为不同癌症的幸存者将以独特的方式受到文化意义的影响。 这个项目结合了植根于米德的著作中的符号互动主义的观点，从文化社会学的见解来理解两组癌症幸存者之间的自我建设。 三个研究问题将被解决：1）癌症的文化表征如何影响癌症幸存者的自我？ 2)社会互动如何影响癌症幸存者的自我？ 3)癌症类型如何塑造自我，文化和社会互动之间的关系？ 数据将包括对60名在访谈前3至12个月完成乳腺癌或结直肠癌治疗的女性进行的深入访谈。 受访者将在城市社区的两个癌症治疗中心和一个小镇癌症支持组织中使用系统抽样方法招募。 访谈记录将使用定性数据分析软件ATLAS.ti进行分析。 本论文的研究结果将有助于一个新兴的文学跨越文化社会学和社会心理学，解决文化和自我之间的联系。 此外，这项研究将通过借鉴文化社会学的见解来完善慢性病文献，以进一步考虑文化在疾病经历中的作用，并将增强我们对慢性病患者中一个独特且几乎未研究的子集的理解。 该项目的广泛影响包括以下方面。 这项研究将有助于研究人员，学生和有兴趣了解癌症生存的从业者，包括乳腺癌和结直肠癌以外的癌症幸存者以及癌症幸存者的经历，这种理解对于开发服务以帮助幸存者在治疗后恢复健康和富有成效的生活至关重要。

Because of the invasive, painful, and often disfiguring treatments for cancer and the uncertainty and fear of recurrence, it is unlikely that survivors simply return to their old lives following cancer treatment. The disruptive nature of serious illnesses such as cancer provides a unique opportunity to examine the process of self-construction. Intuitively, it makes sense that messages about cancer survivorship (embodied in other persons with cancer, conveyed in conversations with friends about cancer, or seen at a cancer fundraising run) will influence the process of making sense of cancer. However, empirically, we do not know how the public meanings of cancer shape the experiences of survivors. Furthermore, because many social representations of cancer target a particular form of cancer, we might expect that survivors of different cancers will be impacted by cultural meanings in unique ways. This project combines the symbolic interactionist perspective rooted in the writings of Mead with insights from cultural sociology to understanding the construction of self among two groups of cancer survivors. Three research questions will be addressed: 1) How do cultural representations of cancer impact the self of the cancer survivor? 2) How does social interaction impact the self of the cancer survivor? 3) How does type of cancer shape the relationship between self, culture, and social interaction? Data will consist of in-depth interviews with sixty women who have completed treatment for breast or colorectal cancer three to twelve months prior to the interview. Respondents will be recruited using systematic sampling methods at two cancer treatment centers in an urban community and at a small town cancer support organization. Interview transcripts will be analyzed using ATLAS.ti, a qualitative data analysis software program. The findings from this dissertation research will contribute to a burgeoning literature spanning cultural sociology and social psychology that addresses the links between culture and the self. Furthermore, this research will refine the chronic illness literature by drawing upon insights from cultural sociology to further consider the role of culture in the illness experience and will enhance our understanding of a unique and virtually unstudied subset of chronic illness sufferers. The broader impacts of this project include the following. This research will be useful to researchers, students, and practitioners interested in understanding cancer survivorship, including survivors of cancers other than breast and colorectal and the experiences of cancer survivors, such understanding is critical for developing services to assist survivors in returning to healthy and productive lives following treatment.