Cultural consonance, or individual enactment of cultural models, is associated with lower depressive symptoms. This article incorporates individual agency into the cultural consonance model. Data were collected using mixed methods in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Brazil is a unique setting for this research, given that personal agency is institutionalized in the practice of o jeitinho (a distinctively Brazilian way of circumventing rules). Cultural consonance was measured relative to cultural models of life goals. A measure of a sense of personal agency combined scales of locus of control and frustration tolerance. Cultural consonance had a stronger association with depressive symptoms than individual agency. These results are also consistent with cultural consonance as a mediator of the association of agency and depressive symptoms. The implications for the conceptualization of culture and its role in mental health, and for the influence of psychological factors on culture, are discussed. [Brazil, agency, cultural consonance, depression] Culture is generally regarded as an important influence on mental health, but specifying the details of the process has proven difficult. A theory linking culture to the individual, along with a measurement model for its operationalization, have proven elusive. Dressler and colleagues (Dressler 2018a; Dressler, Balieiro, and dos Santos 2017) developed a theory of cultural consonance to describe with operational precision how culture as a property of social aggregates gets translated into individual belief and behavior, which in turn can influence health outcomes. Higher cultural consonance is associated with lower depressive symptoms, lower blood pressure, better immune function, and other health outcomes (Dressler 2018b). The measurement of cultural consonance provides an opportunity to gauge the influence of culture relative to other factors, offering the potential to test complex hypotheses regarding how these factors intersect. A central question in psychological anthropology involves the exercise of personal agency in the context of the directive influence of culture (Holland, Price, and Westermeyer 2018). Since cultural consonance identifies persons who more completely adopt cultural models, how might individual agency affect the association of cultural consonance and health? Can we specify a model of the combined influences of cultural consonance and agency on mental health? The aim of this article is to examine this question with data collected in a mixed-methods study of depressive symptoms in an urban center in the south of Brazil. In this study, along ETHOS, Vol. 47, Issue 2, pp. 148–167, ISSN 0091-2131 online ISSN 1548-1352. C © 2019 by the American Anthropological Association All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/etho.12238 AGENCY AND CULTURAL CONSONANCE 149 with measures of cultural consonance, we developed an individual difference measure of one’s “sense of personal agency;” that is, to what extent does an individual see himor herself as able to effect change in the world, in keeping with his or her own personal aims? How is this associated with cultural consonance, and how do these factors combine to influence depressive symptoms? Culture, Agency, and Health Agency, or an individual’s socioculturally mediated capacity to act (Ahearn 1999), has come to be an important focus in anthropology (Holland et al. 1998; Holland et al. 2018; Ortner 2005). Agency is sometimes opposed to structure, whether structure be thought of as social structure or as the cultural structuring of goals and sentiments. Somehow individuals, as active agents, are still able to pursue their own goals in the presence of these constraining influences (Sewell 1992). While agency is often thought of solely in these terms, there is no reason that individuals could not harness their own sense of self-efficacy and control in the world to pursue culturally constructed goals (Ahearn 1999; Campbell 2009; Ortner 1984). For Ortner (2006, 134–37), agency is defined by the following elements. First, agency describes the subject acting intentionally. There is a goal, and the subject seeks to achieve it. Second, our capacity for agency is a human universal, although, like most things human, agency itself is culturally constructed. Third, agency cannot be divorced from power. Put simply, everyone has agency, but some people have more of it than others as a function of the differential distribution of power. Holland and her colleagues (2018; see also Holland et al. 1998) have expanded upon this understanding of agency by showing how individual agents draw extensively on cultural resources to position themselves relative to a novel set of goals. For Holland and associates, this especially involves a shift in identity as individuals incorporate new conceptions of the self to facilitate their action in a particular social field (Holland et al. 2018). In the anthropological literature, a sense of one’s self as agent tends not to be conceptualized as a psychological disposition. Ortner (1984, 2006), for example, resists such thinking for reasons that are not entirely clear, except that she is uncomfortable with having to deal with too much “psychological plumbing” (her words) in her subjects. The psychologist Albert Bandura (2001), on the other hand, devoted his career to precisely this issue, arguing that there are four core components to agency in humans. The first is intentionality: to have agency is to intend to do something. The second is forethought. The active agent has a set of expectations for what action is intended and likely to produce. The third is selfreactiveness; we actively engage in strategies intended to achieve the ends sought, and we monitor ourselves and our success along the way. The fourth core component of agency is self-reflection; the agent is aware of his or her negotiating potential constraints. To measure agency from this perspective, scales of perceived self-efficacy and internal locus of control have been relied upon (Bandura 2001).

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能动性、文化共鸣和抑郁症状：巴西的例子

文化和谐，或文化模式的个人制定，与较低的抑郁症状有关。本文将个体能动性纳入文化和谐模型。在巴西里贝朗普雷图使用混合方法收集数据。巴西是这项研究的独特环境，因为个人代理在 o jeitinho 的实践中被制度化（一种独特的巴西规避规则的方式）。文化和谐是相对于生活目标的文化模型来衡量的。个人代理感的衡量标准结合了控制点和挫折容忍度的量表。与个体能动性相比，文化和谐与抑郁症状有更强的关联。这些结果也与作为代理和抑郁症状关联的中介的文化和谐一致。讨论了文化概念化及其在心理健康中的作用，以及心理因素对文化的影响。[巴西、能动性、文化共鸣、抑郁症] 文化通常被认为对心理健康有重要影响，但已证明很难具体说明这一过程的细节。将文化与个人联系起来的理论，以及对其运作的衡量模型，已被证明是难以捉摸的。Dressler 及其同事（Dressler 2018a；Dressler、Balieiro 和 dos Santos 2017）开发了一种文化和谐理论，以精确操作描述文化作为社会聚合的一种属性如何转化为个人信仰和行为，进而影响健康结果. 较高的文化共鸣与较低的抑郁症状有关，降低血压、改善免疫功能和其他健康结果（Dressler 2018b）。文化和谐的测量提供了一个机会来衡量文化相对于其他因素的影响，提供了测试关于这些因素如何相交的复杂假设的潜力。心理人类学的一个核心问题涉及在文化的直接影响的背景下行使个人能动性（Holland、Price 和 Westermeyer，2018 年）。由于文化和谐识别更完全采用文化模式的人，个体能动性如何影响文化和谐与健康的关联？我们能否详细说明文化协调和能动性对心理健康的综合影响模型？本文的目的是使用在巴西南部城市中心的抑郁症状混合方法研究中收集的数据来研究这个问题。在这项研究中，沿着 ETHOS，卷。47，第 2 期，第 148-167 页，ISSN 0091-2131 在线 ISSN 1548-1352。C © 2019 美国人类学协会版权所有。DOI: 10.1111/etho.12238 代理与文化协调 149 通过文化协调的测量，我们开发了一个人的“个人代理感”的个体差异测量；也就是说，一个人在多大程度上认为自己能够影响世界的变化，是否符合他或她的个人目标？这与文化和谐有什么关系，这些因素如何结合起来影响抑郁症状？文化、代理和卫生代理，或个人的社会文化中介的行动能力（Ahearn 1999），已成为人类学的一个重要焦点（Holland 等，1998；Holland 等，2018；Ortner，2005）。代理有时与结构相对立，无论将结构视为社会结构还是目标和情感的文化结构。不知何故，作为积极的代理人，在存在这些限制性影响的情况下，个人仍然能够追求自己的目标（Sewell 1992）。虽然人们通常只用这些术语来考虑代理，个人没有理由不能利用自己对世界的自我效能感和控制感来追求文化建构的目标（Ahearn 1999；Campbell 2009；Ortner 1984）。对于 Ortner (2006, 134–37)，代理由以下要素定义。首先，能动性描述了有意采取行动的主体。有一个目标，主题寻求实现它。其次，我们的代理能力是人类的普遍性，尽管与人类的大多数事物一样，代理本身是文化构建的。第三，代理不能脱离权力。简而言之，每个人都有能动性，但由于权力的差异分配，有些人比其他人拥有更多的能动性。Holland 和她的同事（2018 年；另见 Holland 等人。1998）通过展示个体代理如何广泛利用文化资源来将自己定位于一组新的目标，从而扩展了对代理的这种理解。对于 Holland 及其同事而言，这尤其涉及身份的转变，因为个人融入​​了新的自我概念以促进他们在特定社会领域的行动（Holland 等人，2018 年）。在人类学文献中，自我作为代理人的感觉往往不被概念化为一种心理倾向。例如，Ortner (1984, 2006) 出于不完全清楚的原因拒绝这种想法，除了她对在她的主题中不得不处理太多“心理管道”（她的话）感到不舒服。另一方面，心理学家阿尔伯特·班杜拉 (Albert Bandura) (2001) 的职业生涯正是针对这个问题，认为人类的代理有四个核心组成部分。第一个是意向性：有能动性就是打算做某事。二是深谋远虑。主动代理对意图和可能产生的动作有一组期望。三是自我反应；我们积极参与旨在实现目标的战略，并在此过程中监控自己和我们的成功。代理的第四个核心组成部分是自我反省；代理人知道他或她谈判的潜在限制。为了从这个角度衡量能动性，人们依赖感知自我效能感和内部控制点的量表（Bandura 2001）。主动代理对意图和可能产生的动作有一组期望。三是自我反应；我们积极参与旨在实现目标的战略，并在此过程中监控自己和我们的成功。代理的第四个核心组成部分是自我反省；代理人知道他或她谈判的潜在限制。为了从这个角度衡量能动性，人们依赖感知自我效能感和内部控制点的量表（Bandura 2001）。主动代理对意图和可能产生的动作有一组期望。三是自我反应；我们积极参与旨在实现目标的战略，并在此过程中监控自己和我们的成功。代理的第四个核心组成部分是自我反省；代理人知道他或她谈判的潜在限制。为了从这个角度衡量能动性，人们依赖感知自我效能感和内部控制点的量表（Bandura 2001）。代理人知道他或她谈判的潜在限制。为了从这个角度衡量能动性，人们依赖感知自我效能感和内部控制点的量表（Bandura 2001）。代理人知道他或她谈判的潜在限制。为了从这个角度衡量能动性，人们依赖感知自我效能感和内部控制点的量表（Bandura 2001）。