Beyond unfavorable thinking: The Illness Cognition Questionnaire for chronic diseases.

Abstract

The literature on chronic diseases recognizes the role of illness cognition as a mediator between stress and illness. Few conceptualizations and instruments, however, give an indication of both unfavorable and favorable ways of adjusting to an uncontrollable long-term stressor, such as a chronic disease. The authors propose 3 generic illness cognitions that reflect different ways of reevaluating the inherently aversive character of a chronic condition: helplessness as a way of emphasizing the aversive meaning of the disease, acceptance as a way to diminish the aversive meaning, and perceived benefits as a way of adding a positive meaning to the disease. A self-report instrument, the Illness Cognition Questionnaire, was developed to assess these cognitions across different chronic diseases. The results support the reliable and valid assessment of these illness cognitions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis and indicate the maladaptive function of helplessness and the adaptive function of acceptance and perceived benefits for the long-term physical and psychological health of patients with a chronic disease.

Post-Traumatic Growth After a Myocardial Infarction: A Matter of Personality, Psychological Health, or Cognitive Coping?

“…As far as extraversion is concerned, this confirmed the results of previous studies that had found this trait to be the most consistent and significant predictor of growth (Sheikh, 2004). The significant finding with regard to neuroticism contradicts some studies (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996;Sheikh, 2004), yet it supports the study of Evers et al, (2001). Also previous results regarding the relationship between conscientiousness and PTG have been mixed (Linley & Joseph, 2004).…”

“…In their meta-analytic review, Helgeson et al, (2006) concluded (on the basis of an effectsize calculated over seven studies) that neuroticism was unrelated to PTG. In other studies, however, an inverse significant relationship was found between neuroticism and PTG (Evers et al, 2001). Also other major personality traits (extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness) have been found to be associated with growth (for a review see Linley & Joseph, 2004).…”

The role of self-blame and responsibility in adjustment to inflammatory bowel disease.

“…Helplessness reflects reevaluating a chronic condition in a way that emphasizes its aversive nature, acceptance reflects re-evaluating the chronic condition in a way that diminishes its aversive meaning, and perceived benefits reflects adding a positive meaning to the disease. Acceptance is associated with long term psychological adjustments, whereas Helplessness has been linked to poorer adjustment and functioning across different chronic illness populations (Evers et al, 2001). The 6-item Acceptance and Helplessness subscales were examined as outcome variables, whereas the Perceived Benefits subscale was examined to clarify the nature of avoidant coping.…”

Assessment of spiritual suffering in the cancer context: A systematic literature review

“…Some 20 scales were identified that measured meaning: the Chinese Cancer Coherence Scale (CCCS) (Chan et al, 2007); the Constructed Meaning Scale (Fife, 1995); the meaning/peace subscale of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy -Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp) (Canada et al, 2008;Murphy et al, 2010;Peterman et al, 2002); the Illness Cognitions Questionnaire (ICQ) (Evers et al, 2001); the Internal Coherence Scale (ICS) (Kroz et al, 2009); the Life Attitude Profile (LAP)/ Life Attitude Profile -Revised (LAP -R) (Reker, 1992;Reker & Peacock, 1981); the Life Evaluation Questionnaire (LEQ) (Salmon et al, 1996); the Meaning in Life questions (including the Benefit Finding Scale [BFS]) used by Tomich and Helgeson (2002); the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) (Steger et al, 2006); the Meaning in Life Scale (MILS) (Jim et al, 2006); the Meaning in Suffering Test (MIST) (Starck, 1983); the Perceived Meanings of Cancer Pain Inventory (PMCPI) (Chen, 1999); the Personal Meaning Profile (PMP) (Wong, 1998); the Positive Meaning and Vulnerability Scale (Bower et al, 2005); the Purpose in Life (PIL) Test (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964); the Purposelessness, Understimulation, and Boredom (PUB) Scale (Passik et al, 2003); the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE) (Fegg et al, 2008); the Sense of Coherence (SOC) Scale (Antonovsky, 1993); the Sources of Meaning Profile (SOMP)/Sources of Meaning Profile -Revised (SOMP -R) (Reker, 1996); and the World Assumptions Scale (Janoff-Bulman, 1989). The optimal measure of meaning will vary depending on the purpose and context of the assessment.…”