Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups.
TL;DR: Support seeking was highest for diseases viewed as stigmatizing and was lowest for less embarrassing but equally devastating disorders, such as heart disease, and implications for social comparison theory and its applications in health care are discussed.
Abstract: More Americans try to change their health behaviors through self-help than through all other forms of professionally designed programs. Mutual support groups, involving little or no cost to participants, have a powerful effect on mental and physical health, yet little is known about patterns of support group participation in health care. What kinds of illness experiences prompt patients to seek each other's company? In an effort to observe social comparison processes with real-world relevance, support group participation was measured for 20 disease categories in 4 metropolitan areas (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas) and on 2 on-line forums. Support seeking was highest for diseases viewed as stigmatizing (e.g., AIDS, alcoholism, breast and prostate cancer) and was lowest for less embarrassing but equally devastating disorders, such as heart disease. The authors discuss implications for social comparison theory and its applications in health care.
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Dissertation•
01 Dec 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the motivation for concealment and disclosure of issues related to acquired and traumatic brain injury, and the association of these motivations with a range of possible predictors and outcomes (specifically, selfesteem, social support, social avoidance, loneliness, life satisfaction and community integration).
Abstract: Aims: To investigate the motivation for concealment and disclosure of issues related to acquired and traumatic brain injury, and the association of these motivations with a range of possible predictors and outcomes (specifically, self-esteem, social support, social avoidance, loneliness, life satisfaction and community integration).
Method: Three studies were carried out. The first (N=18) was a qualitative exploration of the reasons why people with acquired brain injury and their family carers chose to disclose or conceal information about the brain injury. In the second (N=55) two questionnaires were developed from the first study (the Non-Disclosure and Self-Disclosure questionnaires). These focused on the motivations of the person with the brain injury, one addressing motivations to conceal and the other motivations to disclose. Assessments of the reliability and validity of these measures were carried out. The third study (N=65) investigated the relationships between these motivations to conceal/disclose and some possible predictors and outcomes of these motivations.
Findings: In the first study, a range of motivations for disclosure (e.g. seeking social support) and for concealment (e.g. avoiding the negative reactions of others) emerged from the data. In the second study, the derived questionnaires showed good internal consistency (the Cronbach’s alpha levels are N-DQ = .92 and S-DQ = .92) and the test-retest reliability (ICC= ranged from .38 to .805). Predicted significant correlations with Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation and N-DQ1 (r=.418, n=55, p=.002) and with the Distress Disclosure Index and S-DQ2 (r=.595, n=54, p=.001) provided evidence of their concurrent validity. In the third study, as hypothesized, higher motivations to conceal (i.e. high N-DQ scores) were significantly correlated with lower self esteem (r = -.357, n = 65, p = .003 with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory); higher social avoidance (r = .345, n = 64, p = .005 with the SAD); and greater loneliness (r = .380, n = 65, p = .002 with the University of California Los Angeles loneliness scale). The results of a mediation analysis were consistent with the hypothesis that higher motivations to conceal had an impact on general life satisfaction (as measured by the LiSat-11) via the mediation of social avoidance (SAD) and loneliness scale (UCLA). However, the hypothesis related to social support was not supported.
Conclusions and implications: Many people affected by a brain injury and their families are concerned about the negative and positive impact that disclosure of information about the brain injury may have. Concern about the negative impact may be associated with negative views of the self, and have a range of negative social consequences. However, disclosure in some circumstances does, in reality, have a negative impact. People with an acquired brain injury and their families may need support in learning to conceal and disclose information about their injury in a more effective way.
4 citations
15 May 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the similarity of meteorologists, engineers, and physicists with respect to empathizing, systemizing, and autistic traits was found to be a predictor of their aptitude in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Abstract: Links between autism spectrum conditions and scientific aptitude were first investigated twenty years ago. Since then, associations between autism and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) aptitude have been established and discussed via the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory. E-S theory hypothesizes that autistic individuals are naturally driven to create and analyze sets of logical rules, or “systems,” related to and constructed around things in the world. This is at the expense of cognitive, but not affective, empathy. Here, we not only extend previous work in testing the similarity of meteorologists, engineers, and physicists with respect to empathizing, systemizing, and autistic traits; we also report the first examination of meteorologists’ personality and mental health relative to other representative physical scientists. Meteorologists in this sample were higher in empathizing and systemizing, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, and less stressed, depressed, and anxious, than were engineers and physicists. Implications for the meteorological workplace are discussed. ABSTRACT (Manuscript received 21 October 2017; review completed 16 March 2018)
4 citations
Cites background from "Who talks? The social psychology of..."
...We hope this article proves valuable in raising awareness for mental health issues in meteorology and helps to convey the importance of destigmatizing and openly discussing mental health; even simply discussing these topics among peers has been shown to improve mental health (Davison et al. 2000; Vogel et al. 2007)....
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TL;DR: Evaluating the social behavior profile of children with AD compared with others without the disease may be of help in the development of specific psychotherapeutic interventions as well as it will increase knowledge on the disease.
Abstract: Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that has a significant impact on the patients’ quality of life due to recurrent episodes during their lives. Considering recent studies describing the association between psychological aspects and atopic dermatitis, it can be suggested that the search of a possible behavioral profile of children presenting AD may be of help in the development of specific psychotherapeutic interventions as well as it will increase knowledge on the disease. Methodology: This research aims at evaluating the social behavior profile of children with AD compared with others without the disease. In this case-control study, two groups aged 4 to 18 years old have been included; the study-group includes patients with atopic dermatitis who have
4 citations
Cites background from "Who talks? The social psychology of..."
...They emphasized that patients who understand their disease are able to talk to friends, families and professionals more comfortably.(11) Among patients of the SG, the issue mentioned above must be considered again, because all of them were part of the Dermatologic Outpatient Clinic at HCPA, which adopts the practice of explaining the disease to patients and families....
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..., in 2000, emphasizes that patients that understand this relation feel more comfortable when talking to friends, relatives and professionals because they become more self-confident.(11) In order to try to understand which emotional factors could interfere in the disease development, some authors describe personality traits that they find to be more common in atopic patients....
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01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a latent growth curve modeling approach to examine the effectiveness of online support group intervention on depressive symptoms and life satisfaction over time, and found that participants who participated in online support groups reported higher levels of life satisfaction at post-intervention and those levels were maintained over the follow-up period.
Abstract: The present study used a latent growth curve modeling approach to examine the effectiveness of online support group intervention on depressive symptoms and life satisfaction over time. A total of 83 Asian American lesbian and bisexual women were randomly assigned to participate in either a four-week online support group intervention or a no-intervention control group. Participation in the online support group intervention was found to predict higher levels of life satisfaction at post-intervention and those levels were maintained over the follow-up period. No differences were found for level or rate of change for depressive symptoms. Three exploratory moderators were tested for the relations between internalized homophobia or ethnic identity and depressive symptoms or life satisfaction over time. The first moderator was group condition. For depressive symptoms, group condition failed to be a significant moderator of either ethnic identity or internalized homophobia on depressive symptoms at the post-intervention and over time. When internalized homophobia is low, the mean levels of life satisfaction at post-intervention were similar between two groups, but life satisfaction significantly increased over the one-month follow-up period only for support group participants. The second moderator was perceived support from the online group. Perceived support failed to be a significant moderator of internalized homophobia on depressive symptoms or life satisfaction at the post-intervention and over time. However, ethnic identity was found to interact with perceived support. For depressive symptoms, when ethnic identity is high and support is high, participants reported the highest levels of depressive symptoms at post-intervention and over the follow-up period. Conversely, those with low ethnic identity
4 citations
01 Aug 2015
4 citations
Cites background from "Who talks? The social psychology of..."
...The researchers posited that this might demonstrate an advantage of the anonymous format of online interactions (Davison et al., 2000)....
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References
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors pointed out that there is a strong functional tie between opinions and abilities in humans and that the ability evaluation of an individual can be expressed as a comparison of the performance of a particular ability with other abilities.
Abstract: Hypothesis I: There exists, in the human organism, a drive to evaluate his opinions and his abilities. While opinions and abilities may, at first glance, seem to be quite different things, there is a close functional tie between them. They act together in the manner in which they affect behavior. A person’s cognition (his opinions and beliefs) about the situation in which he exists and his appraisals of what he is capable of doing (his evaluation of his abilities) will together have bearing on his behavior. The holding of incorrect opinions and/or inaccurate appraisals of one’s abilities can be punishing or even fatal in many situations. It is necessary, before we proceed, to clarify the distinction between opinions and evaluations of abilities since at first glance it may seem that one’s evaluation of one’s own ability is an opinion about it. Abilities are of course manifested only through performance which is assumed to depend upon the particular ability. The clarity of the manifestation or performance can vary from instances where there is no clear ordering criterion of the ability to instances where the performance which reflects the ability can be clearly ordered. In the former case, the evaluation of the ability does function like other opinions which are not directly testable in “objective reality’. For example, a person’s evaluation of his ability to write poetry will depend to a large extent on the opinions which others have of his ability to write poetry. In cases where the criterion is unambiguous and can be clearly ordered, this furnishes an objective reality for the evaluation of one’s ability so that it depends less on the opinions of other persons and depends more on actual comparison of one’s performance with the performance of others. Thus, if a person evaluates his running ability, he will do so by comparing his time to run some distance with the times that other persons have taken. In the following pages, when we talk about evaluating an ability, we shall mean specifically the evaluation of that ability in situations where the performance is unambiguous and is known. Most situations in real life will, of course, present situations which are a mixture of opinion and ability evaluation. In a previous article (7) the author posited the existence of a drive to determine whether or not one’s opinions were “correct”. We are here stating that this same drive also produces behavior in people oriented toward obtaining an accurate appraisal of their abilities. The behavioral implication of the existence of such a drive is that we would expect to observe behaviour on the part of persons which enables them to ascertain whether or not their opinions are correct and also behavior which enables them accurately to evaluate their abilities. It is consequently
16,927 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1878
TL;DR: The Red River of the North basin of the Philippines was considered a part of the Louisiana Purchase by the United States Department of Commerce in the 1939 Census Atlas of the United Philippines as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: 1 Includes drainage basin of Red River of the North, not a part of any accession, but in the past sometimes considered a part of the Louisiana Purchase. i Includes Baker, Canton, Enderbury, Rowland, Jarvis, Johnston, and Midway Islands; and also certain other outlying islands (21 square miles). 3 Commonwealth of the Philippines, Commission of the Census; 1939 Census, Census Atlas of the Philippines. Source: Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
10,650 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1970TL;DR: Yalom as mentioned in this paper described the course of therapy from both the patient's and the therapist's viewpoint in Encounter Groups: First Facts (1973) and Every Day gets a Little Closer: A Twice-Told Therapy (1974).
Abstract: This book first appeared in 1970 and has gone into two further editions, one in 1975 and this one in 1985. Yalom is also the author of Existential Psychotherapy (1980), In-patient Group Psychotherapy (1983), the co-author with Lieberman of Encounter Groups: First Facts (1973) and with Elkin of Every Day Gets a Little Closer: A Twice-Told Therapy (1974) (which recounts the course of therapy from the patient's and the therapist's viewpoint). The present book is the central work of the set and seems to me the most substantial. It is also one of the most readable of his works because of its straightforward style and the liberal use of clinical examples.
4,235 citations
"Who talks? The social psychology of..." refers background in this paper
...In a similar vein, Yalom (1995) has asserted that self-help groups offer a unique venue for growth, social experimentation, and change....
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TL;DR: Greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness.
Abstract: The Internet could change the lives of average citizens as much as did the telephone in the early part of the 20th century and television in the 1950s and 1960s. Researchers and social critics are debating whether the Internet is improving or harming participation in community life and social relationships. This research examined the social and psychological impact of the Internet on 169 people in 73 households during their first 1 to 2 years on-line. We used longitudinal data to examine the effects of the Internet on social involvement and psychological well-being. In this sample, the Internet was used extensively for communication. Nonetheless, greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness. These findings have implications for research, for public policy and for the design of technology.
4,091 citations
3,765 citations