Journal ArticleDOI
Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups.
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TLDR
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.read more
Citations
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Silenced voices: Experiences of grief following road traffic crashes in Western Australia
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the experience of grief resulting from losing a loved one in a crash in Western Australia and described the influence of contextual factors on those grief experiences using a constructionist grounded theory methodology.
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Support group participation among persons with HIV: Demographic characteristics and perceived barriers
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined demographic characteristics and perceived barriers of attenders and non-attenders of HIV support groups via a mail survey and found that participants who expressed interest in HIV support group participation were diagnosed more recently than those who did not express interest.
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Detecting emotional expression in face-to-face and online breast cancer support groups.
Anna Liess,Wendy Simon,Maya Yutsis,Jason E. Owen,Karen Altree Piemme,Mitch Golant,Janine Giese-Davis +6 more
TL;DR: The authors found that human text coding significantly overestimated Positive Affect and underestimated Defensive/Hostile Affect compared with video coding and the implications of utilizing text-only detection of emotion are discussed.
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‘Girls need to strengthen each other as a group’: experiences from a gender-sensitive stress management intervention by youth-friendly Swedish health services – a qualitative study
TL;DR: The overall results of the interview analysis suggest that the stress management course the authors evaluated facilitated ‘a space for gendered and embodied empowerment in a hectic life’, implying that it both contributed to a sense of individual growth and allowed participants to unburden themselves of stress problems within a trustful and supportive context.
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Psychiatric diagnoses as semiotic mediators: The case of ADHD
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight three specific functions that psychiatric diagnoses can have as semiotic mediators in the lives of the diagnosed: (1) an explanatory function in relation to experienced problems, (2) a self-affirming function (in the sense that a diagnosis provides a framework according to which numerous phenomena appear as “symptoms”), and (3) a disclaiming function with the possibility of medicalizing aspects of moral life).
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
A Theory of Social Comparison Processes
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.
Book
Statistical abstract of the United States
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.
Book
The theory and practice of group psychotherapy
TL;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).
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Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?
Robert E. Kraut,Michael Patterson,Vicki Lundmark,Sara Kiesler,Tridas Mukophadhyay,William L. Scherlis +5 more
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.
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