Symptom Perception, Interpretation & Response Flashcards
What is the difference between illness and disease?
Disease: Something of the organ, cell or tissue which denotes a physical disorder or underlying pathology
Illness: What the person experiences
What are the 3 stages of response which outline how a person knows if they are getting ill?
- Perceiving symptoms
- Interpreting symptoms as illness
- Planning & taking action
What are the types of influences on symptom perception?
Biological, psychological, contextual
What are the 5 stages of the symptom perception model?
Information input Attention Detection Attribution Experience
What bodily signs (physical sensations) increase the likelihood of symptom perception?
- Painful or disruptive
- Novel
- Persistent
- Pre-existing chronic disease
How do individual differences in attention influence symptom perception?
Different levels of attention people give to internal/external states - heightened attention increases sensitivity to bodily signs & can lead to mass psychogenic illness
What are some of the social influences on symptom perception?
- Perceptions of vulnerability & holding stereotypes
- Context & motivation to attend & notice symptoms
What are some of the other individual differences that affect symptom perception?
Gender
Emotions
Cognitions/coping style
Age
What are illness representations?
Organised conceptions of individual illnesses obtained through media, personal experience, family and friends
What are the 5 themes of illness representations?
- Identity
- Consequences
- Cause
- Time-line
- Curability/controlability
What does the Self-Regulatory model (common sense model) propose?
Mental representations provide a framework for coping with and understanding illness and help a person recognise what to look out for when they’re ill
What does the Self-Regulatory model (common sense model) consider in parallel?
The objective components of the stimuli and the subjective response to that stimulus
What are some of the outcomes affected by illness representations?
- Seeking/using medical treatment
- Emotional reactions to symptoms
- Engagement in self-care behaviours
- Treatment adherence
- Illness-related disability
- Return to work
What are some of the influences on symptom interpretation?
- Cultural influences
- Individual differences
- Disease prototypes
- Social identity
- Attributions
- Life span influences
What are the 3 responses to symptoms?
- Ignore them & hope they recede
- Seek advice from others
- Seek medical treatment
