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Basic research in the behavioral and social sciences is designed to further our understanding of fundamental mechanisms and patterns of behavioral and social functioning relevant to the Nation’s health and well-being, and as they interact with each other, with biology and the environment.
As is the case with basic biomedical research, basic behavioral and social sciences research is designed to elucidate knowledge about underlying mechanisms and processes, knowledge that is fundamental to improving the understanding, explanation, observation, prediction, prevention, and management of illnesses, as well as the promotion of optimal health and well being. The range of focus includes different “granularity” or levels of complexity. Basic behavioral and social sciences research involves both human and animal studies and spans the full range of scientific inquiry, from processes within the intra-individual level (“under the skin”), to mechanisms “outside the skin” that explain inter-individual, group, organizational, community, population, macroeconomic and other systems level patterns of collective behavior. While the primary focus of basic BSSR must ultimately be directly relevant to behavioral and social factors, the domains and units of analysis can include intra-organismic as well as inter-organismic factors (“cells to society”), over varying units of time from nanosecond to centuries, and including lifespan developmental phases and phenomena that may occur within and across generations. Some would argue that it is impossible to separate basic and applied science, because the one is bound up in the context of the other. Yet despite the complexities, it is useful to classify research into basic and applied categories, recognizing that there will always be a grey area or a band of uncertainty whose width will vary according to one’s vantage point and the rapidly evolving state of scientific knowledge.
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Implications of definition for future plans for basic BSSR.
Some additional considerations for future directions in basic BSSR are noted here as one way to identify current gaps and opportunities and move the field forward. In OBSSR’s new strategic prospectus (2007); basic behavioral and social sciences research is broadly conceived to include examination of “causes” in the biomedical “reductionist” tradition as well as of “causes of the causes” within the social-ecologic framework of public health science. Like two sides of the same coin, the biomedical domain and the social-ecological domain are inextricably intertwined. Their interaction is at the core of our understanding of complex behavioral-social-health relationships. High prevalence chronic diseases are simultaneously affected by variation in the macro-environment (e.g. poverty), in lifestyle behaviors (e.g. physical activity, diet, tobacco use), and in biological susceptibility (hereditary, normal variation, epigenetic). These complex interactions, and the distribution of their variation across large populations, can produce rapid and widespread changes within a single generation, such as the new epidemics of lung cancer and type2 diabetes.
The newly evolving “systems approach” to behavioral, social and population sciences, like the successful systems approach to biomedicine, brings with it new demands on basic behavioral and social sciences. Advances in mathematics, computer sciences, statistics, informatics, imaging, internet communications, and other technological tools provide new opportunities to transform the theories, models, measures, and methods of basic BSSR. These advances will facilitate improvements in the precision, sensitivity and power of traditional basic behavioral and social science tools like self-report. New approaches to data collection will forge new conceptual models of behavioral and social processes in health and illness, at individual, group, and population levels of analysis. This contemporary view potentially redefines basic BSSR as the search for complex interactions and contextual determinants of health and illness within a systems framework. A science whose fundamental mechanisms include non-linear dynamic feedback loops. This broader definition permits the discovery of emergent properties not apparent from studying the behavior of individual agents in isolation.
The definition and expanded view of basic behavioral and social research was developed by OBSSR as part of its strategic prospectus (2007) in consultation with behavioral and social scientists, and science organizations. This definition is used as a starting point to further subdivide basic behavioral and social research into three categories: (A) research on behavioral and social processes; (B) biopsychosocial research; and (C) research on the development of behavioral or social procedures for measurement, analysis, and classification.
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(A). Research on behavioral and social processes
Research on behavioral and social processes involves the study of human or animal functioning at the level of the individual, small group, institution, organization, or community. At the individual level, this research may involve the study of behavioral factors such as cognition, memory, language, perception, personality, emotion, motivation, and others. At higher levels of aggregation, it includes the study of social variables such as the structure and dynamics of small groups (e.g. couples, families, work groups, etc.); institutions and organizations (e.g. schools, religious organizations, etc.); communities (defined by geography or common interest); and larger demographic, political, economic, and cultural systems. Research on behavioral and social processes also includes the study of the interactions within and between these two levels of aggregation, such as the influence of sociocultural factors on cognitive processes or emotional responses. Finally, this research also includes the study of environmental factors (both natural and human created) such as climate, noise, environmental hazards, residential and other built environments and their effects on behavioral and social functioning.
Examples of research topics and their implications that are or could be funded by NIH Institutes and Centers include:
- Sensation and perception
(Implications: neurological and mental disorders and disorders associated with abnormalities in vision, hearing, taste and smell)
- Emotion and motivation
(Implications: depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, conduct disorders, normal psychological development, eating disorders, obesity, addictions, sleep disturbances, behavioral and cognitive treatments)
- Vulnerability and resilience
(Implications: psychopathology, violence, effects of child abuse and neglect)
- Attention, learning and memory
(Implications: mental disorders involving abnormalities in cognitive processes (e.g., schizophrenia, major depression), attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, cognitive rehabilitation, education)
- Language development
(Implications: communication disorders, autism, learning disabilities)
- Social influences and social cognition
(Implications: all-cause mortality, psychopathology, behavioral and cognitive treatments)
- Family processes and social networks
(Implications: domestic violence, divorce, child abuse, psychopathology, all-cause mortality, child development, aging)
- Sociocultural and environmental processes
(Implications: better understanding of social, cultural, and environmental antecedents to mental and physical illnesses)
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(B). Biopsychosocial research
Biopsychosocial research (also known as biobehavioral or biosocial research) involves the study of the interactions of biological factors with behavioral or social variables and how they affect each other (i.e., the study of bi-directional multilevel relationships).
Examples of research topics and their implications that are or could be funded by the institutes include:
- Gene by environment interactions and Epigenetics over time and Lifespan developmental phases
(Implications: better understanding of interactions among social, genetic and environmental factors affecting mental and physical illnesses, health and well-being, and health disparities, child development, in utero-exposures and later developmental trajectories)
- Behavior genetics
(Implications: addictions, psychopathology, heart disease, gene expression, cancer risk, diabetes, oral health)
- Behavioral, cognitive, social and economic neurosciences
(Implications: effects of brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases, learning disabilities, dementia, addictions, sleep disorders, schizophrenia, neurological development, and plasticity, stigma and stereotyping, chronic stress)
- Psychoneuroimmunology
(Implications: stress effects on health, AIDS, dental problems, infections)
- Psychopharmacology
(Implications: addictions, tobacco control, psychopathology, brain disorders, drug treatments)
- Behavioral cardiology
(Implications: cardiovascular diseases, stroke, hypertension, comorbidity)
- Social Networks and the spread of vectors of disease
(Implications: Natural and human disasters, viruses like AIDS or pandemic flu, social and cultural movements, adoption of fads and fashions that alter dietary habits or physical activity).
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(C). Research on the development of systems models and procedures for measurement, analysis, and classification
Research on the development of integrative systems models, as well as procedures for improving on or developing new measurement, methodologies, analysis, and classification. These activities involve the development and refinement of procedures for measuring and analyzing behavior, psychological functioning, or the social environment. This research is designed to develop research tools that could be used in other areas of behavioral and social sciences or in biomedical, social-ecological research or their interaction. Basic sciences will also advance theories or conceptual and pragmatic models by testing existing theory or developing and validation new theories or models.
Examples of research topics in this area include:
- Systems-focused approaches to understanding health, health care delivery and health policy
- Basic mechanisms underlying efficient dissemination, implementation, community-based participatory interventions, and health services delivery strategies
- Information technologies
- Statistical modeling techniques
- Memory assessment
- Behavioral observation procedures
- Psychometric analysis self-report instruments
- Qualitative and ethnographic methods
- Neuropsychological assessment
- Psychophysiological methods
- Pain Assessment
- Instruments for determining dietary intake and physical activity
- Assessment of medical adherence
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