Explaining Illness and Coping Behaviours Flashcards
What is health? (WHO)
Complete physical, mental and social wellbeing
What are the general beliefs of what it means to be ill?
Having symptoms
Sensations that are novel
Not feeling normal
Not being able to do normal behaviour
What factors affect the likelihood of a symptom to be perceived as an illness?
Persistence/worsening of symptoms
Attention
Societal mores (stereotypes about illness e.g. men more likely to have CVD)
Individual differences e..g life stage, perosnality
Mood (negative moods more symptoms)
Experience and knowledge of illness
What is the sick role? Parsons 1951
Society gives people a sick role when it identifies and accepts them as being ill - symptoms allow this
What are illness behaviours and what is the point of them?
Actions a person undertakes when they are ill to relieve the experience, seek more information and solve the problem to return to normal
What is the self-regulation theory of illness? (Leventhal)
Framework that links illness representations with coping and actions
stage 1: understanding illness
stage 2: coping with the changes
stage 3: evaluating and adapting coping mechanisms
What are the 5 dimensions of illness included in Levanthal’s theory of self regulation?
Identity - beliefs about illness label/symptoms Cause Timeline Consequences Control/Cure
What three types of coping strategies are common?
Appraisal focused - to make sense of illness
Problem focused - to fix illness
Emotion focused - avoidance to fix feelings
What are the two ways perception about illness are currently identified?
Illness perception questionnaire (moss-morris 2002)
Beliefs about medicine questionnaire (necessity, concerns, harms, overuse)
What are some reasons for non-adherence to treatment?
Information unclear
Memory
Beliefs and cognitions that medicine is bad (active non-adherence_
What should be targeted to make healthcare more effective?
Cognitions and emotions to predict behaviours
