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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01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The role of VHOs are demonstrated as venues of health consumerism as well as places for consumers to become involved in the production of services by volunteering, demonstrating the process of reciprocity that helps women cope with their own healing.
Abstract: Purpose – The goal of this chapter is to understand the role of nonprofit voluntary health organizations (VHOs) in the lives of Canadian women coping with breast cancer.
Methodology – Through qualitative interviews with breast cancer survivors and records of VHOs active in this field, we assess the level and nature of their interactions and impact on women's quality of life.
Findings – Our findings suggest that at the micro-level, VHOs are venues for women to receive auxiliary services such as information, counseling, and support that complement the mainstream health care provision. While VHO services empower women as health care consumers, we show that they also serve as venues for women to reciprocate by volunteering. This process of reciprocity helps women cope with their own healing and allows them to be not only consumers but also producers of health services.
Research limitations – The non-random nature and the small sample size make our findings not easily generalizable to the larger population of breast cancer survivors; rather they are indicative of the experiences of Canadian women in one large urban metropolitan area.
Value of the chapter – We demonstrate the role of VHOs as venues of health consumerism as well as places for consumers to become involved in the production of services by volunteering.
7 citations
13 Dec 2018
TL;DR: In this article, a contribution is made to illustrer la mise en oeuvre concrete des principes inherents a la methodologie de la theorisation enracinee (MTE) au travers d'une recherche exploratoire ayant pour point de depart les groupes de parole.
Abstract: Cette contribution a pour objectif d’illustrer la mise en oeuvre concrete des principes inherents a la methodologie de la theorisation enracinee (MTE) au travers d’une recherche exploratoire ayant pour point de depart les groupes de parole. Ces dispositifs, consideres comme « incontournables » par Galiano et Portalier (2012), renvoient a des pratiques de terrain extremement diversifiees. L’etude en cours vise la comprehension des vecus des acteurs de groupes de parole non therapeutiques pour proches (parents, enfants, conjoints, fratries, etc.) animes par des intervenants professionnels et ciblant des thematiques liees a des evenements de vie personnels ou familiaux – moins visibles dans les ecrits scientifiques. Les resultats preliminaires, issus d’entretiens semi-directifs menes aupres de 27 informateurs (18 animateurs et 9 participants), situent la souffrance psychique au coeur du processus d’engagement au sein de ces dispositifs.
7 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The role of sleep in the development and maintenance of Sleep Difficulties in Chronic Pain and the links between Sleep and Pain are studied.
Abstract: ................................................................................................................................ xv Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Defining Terms Central to the Thesis .................................................................................. 3 Chapter One. The Context of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) ......................................... 5 Clinical Presentation of FMS ............................................................................................... 5 Diagnosis ............................................................................................................................. 6 Prevalence ............................................................................................................................ 9 Impact of FMS ..................................................................................................................... 9 Current Management Strategies ........................................................................................ 12 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter Two. The Role of Sleep ........................................................................................ 15 The Normal Sleep Process ................................................................................................. 15 Measuring Sleep ................................................................................................................ 20 Objective Measures ........................................................................................................... 20 Subjective Measures .......................................................................................................... 22 Affects of Poor Sleep ......................................................................................................... 27 The Links between Sleep and Pain .................................................................................... 27 Nature of Sleep Disturbance in Chronic Pain .................................................................... 29 Factors Affecting Sleep Quality in Chronic Pain .............................................................. 31 The Development and Maintenance of Sleep Difficulties in Chronic Pain ....................... 33 Clinical Implications .......................................................................................................... 36 Chapter Three. Sleep in FMS ............................................................................................. 38 Possible Underlying Physiological Mechanisms of Poor Sleep in FMS ........................... 39 Sleep Disorders in FMS ..................................................................................................... 41 Types of Sleep Difficulties Experienced in FMS .............................................................. 43 Relationships between Sleep and Pain in FMS ................................................................. 44 Managing Sleep Disturbance in FMS ................................................................................ 46 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 47
7 citations
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....
[...]
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