Symptom perception, illness and behaviour Flashcards
What is disease?
Biological deviance from the norm
What is illness?
Subjective experience with psychological and social meanings attached to perceived biological deviance (or existing in the absence of one) based on symptoms = what patients present with
Sensation
detecting stimulus and converting it into neural activity e.g. vision via rods and cones and nociception via sensory receptors in skin
Symptoms
consciously appreciated sensation of physiological problem
Perception of symptoms
attention to sensation, processing in light of previous experience, interpretation depending on context
Attention
- Unconscious psychological mechanisms switch brain’s limited processing capacity to one stimulus or another
- Awareness of sensation; changes in sensation depends on stimuli, degree of internal focus, cognitive schema and social models
- Explains why symptom perception, reporting influenced by unemployment, living alone, unhappiness, personality, busyness
Illness cognition/beliefs/perceptions
- Mental representations for interpreting symptoms, understanding and responding to illness
- 5 steps - identity, cause, timeline, consequences, curability
- Interact with emotional response to influence actions
Symptom interpretation
- Making sense of sensations, labelling as symptoms, illness
- Attribution to a cause
- Influenced by expectations, knowledge and meaning
Misattributions
- Attributing normal sensations to illness - interpretation of physical arousal due to exercise
- Illness templates in psychogenic illness
- Failure to attribute symptoms to illness - stress, existing illness, beliefs about illness, coping strategies, therapeutic
Illness behaviour
- Any behaviour undertaken by an individual who feels ill to relieve that experience or define the meaning of the illness experience
- Influenced by time, health providers
- Important because it shapes recognition of illness, whether patients reach care and patterns of health care use
Coping with symptoms and illness
- Avoidance/emotion-focussed coping: modifying response to symptoms and illness but no direct action to address
- Approach/problem-focussed coping: actively doing something to relieve symptoms - seeking info, self care, alternative therapies
Background factors for illness
- Older people, females generally more likely/more frequently seek care for range of conditions
- People with existing chronic conditions consistently more likely to seek care but may over-report symptoms
- E.g. age, gender, ethnicity, genes, SES, cultural norms
Psychological factors for illness
- Personality - type D, neuroticism
- Negative explanations and experiences and expectancies
- Mental health problems and illness-related emotions
- General and illness-related cognitions
Emotional factors affecting illness
- Fears of symptoms, medications, treatment, hospitals
- Stress and anxiety
- Mind-body links in illness behaviour
Pre-hospital care and illness beliefs
- Mismatch in symptoms expected vs experienced
- Perceived ability to cope and control with symptoms
- Lack of perceived seriousness of symptoms
- Pre-hospital delay associated with waiting for symptoms to go away
- Reduced delay associated with early treatment
