Illness Cognitions Flashcards
illness cognitions 5
Identity
Timeline
Control
Consequences
Percieved causes - biological (immune system, germs and viruses; Heijmans, 1998)
-environmental cause (causes such as pollution and chemicals; Heijmans,)
-psychological and emotional (causes such as mental attitude, overwork, stress and personality; Moss-Morris et al.
Support for illness cogs
lau et al - who provided pp with a list of statements that pp had to organise in a way that ‘made sense to them’. It was found that pp formed 5 dimensions that reflected Leventhal’s dimensions.
Evidence against illness cogs
French - that illness beliefs were dependent upon the different methods used. They found that questionnaires elicited different beliefs about a heart attack when compared to responses to a vignette (a brief description of a man).
ICQ
3 vs
illness cognition questionnaire (Evers)
- ways of handling illness relating to acceptance, helplessness and percieved benefits.
- used to explain adjustment to a range of chronic disease
Van dammea - acceptance has positive effects on well-being across several domains including fatigue, psychological distress and functional impairment
Acceptance has also been found to independently predict greater life satisfaction (Van Mierlo
Verhoof et al - people dealin with illness they had had since childhood - long term adjustments. acceptance - better mental health. helplessness - dep and anxiety
Kendall
should investigate both pos and neg / maladaptive and adaptive cognitions to fully understanding individual differences in adjusting to illness
factors that influence cogs -
attention
variability in attention paid - pennebaker
A hypervigilance to pain is characteristic of those more likely to perceive the pain as a threat (Van Damme). This can be exacerbated by anxiety (Eysenk)
Catastrophic thinking has been described as ‘an exaggerated negative mental set brought to bear during actual or anticipated pain experience’ (Sullivan) and has been shown to heighten vigilance to threatening somatic information (Crombez)
factors that influence cogs -
gender etc
mood
culture
gender, time of the day and age (Michel) with adolescents reporting more symptoms in the evenings compared to their parents.
mood can influence appraisals of health and the ease at which illness-related memories are retrieved (Croyle). Greater accessibility of illness-related cognitions and memories could lead to greater psychological distress and an increase in treatment seeking behaviour (Tessler)
-Wright et al- measured both subjective reportings of symptoms, and actual reflex symptoms to a stressor. They found that the stressor increased subjective ratings of symptoms but not actual ones. This is significant because it shows that stress influences symptom perception and emphasises the gap between objective and subjective accounts of symptoms.
culture - Ballenger
health outcomes
Foster et al- Patients who expected their back problem to last a long time, who perceived serious consequences, and who held weak beliefs in the controllability of their back problem were more likely to have poor clinical outcomes 6 months after they consulted their doctor.
Van Dammea - chronic fatigue syndrome, dev, maintence and psych well being
Rutter- IBS, completed IPQ, HADs and QoL
- higher percieved consequences related to anx and dep and lower qOL and health satisfaction
Smith- Illness cognitions relating to the concept of control, such as helplessness and cognitive distortion, have been found to contribute to depressed moods in those with chronic diseases
illness rep guided by three basic sources of info
1 - general pool of lay info
2 - social enviro - docs, parents
3 - somatic info
Diefenbach and leventhal - 3rd point is influenced by personality type and cultural background
adjustment outcomes
Searle - coping did no mediate link between illness perceptions and wellbeing
Moss - morris - perceptions relating to consequences with associated with planning, suppression of competing activites and venting emotions
Treatment beliefs measurement
and support
measured using BMQ - beliefs about medicines questionnaire - Horne
has 4 core dimensions-
1- specific necessity
2- specific concern
3 - general overuse
4 - general harm
Beliefs about necessity and percieved adverse effects predict adherence to treatment
Bucks - necessity was strong predictor of treatment in cystic fibrosis patients
Compliance to treatment
Chen - self-management vs med.
percieved control predicted both
cause only predicted med - causal attributions
- Croyle - can lead to further biases
Ross - control predicted higher compliance
-Hansson-Scherman - desire to maintain self image and control
Brewer-beliefs about seriousness of consequences predicts adherence in hypercholesterolemia
why illness cogs are important and how health profs should use them
petrie - needed to optimise treatment plans
Heijman - emphasis patient and treatment control
Karademas - more info can undo maladapative cogs
Simpson - adherence linked to mortality
Coping - Crisis theory
Moos and Schaefer
Coping - Cog adaptation
Taylor
