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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TL;DR: Patients with HF have a shorter life expectancy than do patients with almost every type of cancer, and the “quality-adusted life years” lost due to early termination of ife have been found to be higher, by a factor of 3–4 in men and 2–3 in women, for patients with HF or acute MI over he QALY losses in patients with different cancers.
9 citations
Cites background or result from "Who talks? The social psychology of..."
...This disparity between support for HF patients vs support for cancer patients was formally investigated more than a decade ago in a study published in American Psychologist.7 In the first part of the study, conducted in 4 major etropolitan areas—...
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...This disparity between support for HF patients vs support for cancer patients was formally investigated more than a decade ago in a study published in American Psychologist.(7) In the first part of the study, conducted in 4 major etropolitan areas—New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and hicago—the prevalence of support groups in 20 different isease-state populations was assessed....
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...These substantial morbidity and mortality benefits of HF drugs and devices notwithstanding, it is debatable whether the impact of HF is truly appreciated when compared with the common oncologic malignancies, particularly with respect to public awareness and health care funding.(7) Indeed, F represents a much greater challenge to the health care ystem than the general public and health care authorities ppear to believe....
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26 Aug 2011
9 citations
14 Oct 2020
TL;DR: This work analyzed all original posts from a seven-year period on a forum for persons with dementia to understand who posts in this forum and what kinds of social support posters seek to gain from this engagement.
Abstract: Social computing provides a variety of challenges and opportunities for people who are experiencing cognitive decline. Following a recent diagnosis of dementia, older adults sometimes engage in online communities designated for people with dementia. In this work, we analyzed all original posts from a seven-year period on a forum for persons with dementia to understand 1) who posts in this forum and 2) what kinds of social support posters seek to gain from this engagement. Our analyses indicate that, in addition to people with dementia, a variety of dementia-related stakeholders create original posts in this forum. Our results suggest that seeking and offering social support are key activities for all forum users, not just those with dementia for whom the forum was designated. Given these findings, we offer design implications for online spaces for vulnerable communities, with a focus on design that allows for external stakeholder participation while still maintaining the privacy and safety of vulnerable members of the community.
9 citations
Cites background from "Who talks? The social psychology of..."
...We can take some lessons, however, from online health communities for other chronic conditions, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, which have been more widely researched [19]....
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TL;DR: Scleroderma patients use similar coping strategies as patients with more common diseases, but they may not have access to the same level of support services, and accessible interventions aimed at improving problem- and emotion-focused coping are needed.
Abstract: Purpose: Systemic sclerosis or scleroderma is a chronic, rare connective tissue disease with negative physical and psychological implications. Coping strategies used by scleroderma patients have not been studied in-depth. The objective of the present study was to gain a greater understanding of the coping strategies employed by people living with scleroderma.Method: Three semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with a total of 22 people with scleroderma. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis. Coping strategies discussed were analyzed through Lazarus and Folkman’s theoretical model of coping, including: (1) problem-focused, (2) emotion-focused, and (3) meaning-focused coping.Results: Participants reported using a combination of problem-focused (e.g., professional help; seeking disease-related information), emotion-focused (e.g., social support; adaptive distraction techniques), and meaning-focused coping strategies (e.g., benefit finding; goal rea...
9 citations
Cites background from "Who talks? The social psychology of..."
...Lastly, participants stressed the importance and utility of attending SSc support groups as a way to foster feelings of inclusivity, and to facilitate the sharing of emotional and practical health information [39,40]....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2012
9 citations
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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