Uncertainty is widely believed to be a central feature in illness experiences. Moreover, communication is thought to be essential to the construction, management, and resolution of uncertainty. Not surprisingly, however, there are substantial variations in conceptions and analyses of this focal construct and its relation to communication. In this article, we first argue that understandings of the role of communication in health and illness can be improved substantially--thereby enhancing both theory development and practical applications of health communication theory--by recognizing and reconciling sources of variation in conceptions of uncertainty and by synthesizing various specific conceptions. We then review individual-psychological models. linguistic and discourse analyses, and sociocultural and historical perspectives on uncertainty in illness Following the review, we present a framework that synthesizes many conceptions of uncertainty We close with a discussion of 5 challenges and opportunities for research and application.

This essay examines the interplay of communication and the basic human need to integrate probabilistic and evaluative orientations. The analysis focuses on communication in four experiences where it is difficult to satisfy the need: diverging probability and evaluation (e.g., unlikely happiness or IiRely sorrow), ambiguity, ambivalence, and impossibility. The aims are to (a) present a rudimentary theory of communication and the problematic integration of probability and evaluation, and (b) establish the significance of the interplay of communication and problematic integration.In so doing, the essay offers a set of ideas that synthesizes and extends understandings of a wide range of communicative phenomena, from the myndane (commiserating on day-to-day concerns) to the momentous (debates about war and peace), from the idiosyncratic (coping styles) to the common (dynamics of attitude change), and from the intimate (parent-child relations) to the mass public (responding to natural disaster).

This article offers a theoretical analysis of the role of empathy as a key mediator of the suasive effects of health messages, and it discusses the testing of an empirical tool for studying the state of empathy in responses to persuasive messages. It is argued that felt empathy evokes cognitive and emotional processing conducive to important health-promoting responses. This assertion was tested by operationalizing empathy as a response state via a new measure, the Empathy Response Scale (ERS). Two pilot tests and one major study, all set in the challenging area of HIV/AIDS prevention, provided preliminary data supporting the theoretical analysis and the ERS as a measure of the state of empathy. The article concludes with discussions of directions for future tests of the empathy theory and scale, as well as applications of the current framework for developing persuasive messages.

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