Death attitudes and humor: Taking a different perspective on organ donation.

Abstract

organ donation has come about somewhat indirectly. Initially our aim was to investigate coping responses to stress within the domain of death attitudes and to explore the relation between cognitions, affect, and behaviors that arise in deathsalient contexts. For example, based on results of an initial pilot study (Shepherd, 1988), we have hypothesized that higher levels of mood disturbance experienced in death-related situations are associated with a negative evaluation of death and with the avoidance of such death-salient contexts.Although we surmised that the stress of thinking about death does have an impact on subjects' feelings and behaviors, we realized that there exists a range of reactions that can be anticipated among different persons. It has long been known that the measurable effects of stress on feelings and behaviors are often less than impressive (Johnson & Sarason, 1979;Rabkin & Struening, 1976). Research on stress and coping has suggested a variety of subject characteristics that may influence the relation between stress and distress (i.e., Cohen & Syme, 1985;Kobasa, 1979;Lefcourt, Miller, Ware, & Sherk, 1981). Of particular relevance to our own research have been results from a series of studies by Lefcourt and Martin (1986), which provided evidence that humor is a valid coping response that appears to reduce the negative impact of stressful experi-50

Effects of humorous interventions on the willingness to donate organs: a quasi-experimental study in the context of medical cabaret

“…In particular, the combination of fear and humor can increase the persuasive effects of arguments relating to health issues [25]. In terms of willingness to donate organs, there are some promising initial empirical findings demonstrating that a humorous tone is more effective than a sad one when motivating individuals to donate [26,27]. However, as yet, humor has rarely been used as a communication tool for health-related issues [28,29].…”

Humor in hospice care: Who, where, and how much?

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Research has shown that humor reduces stress, [6][7] enhances the immune system, [8][9][10][11][12] and has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system, and the aging process. [13][14][15][16] Nursing research has focused on humor in a variety of healthcare settings including emergency rooms, 17 critical care units, 18 oncology settings, [19][20][21] geriatrics, 22 organ donation, 23 psychiatric wards, 24,25 rehabilitation facilities, 26 gynecology clinics, 27 and hospital wards. 1,28 It has also been examined in relation to death and dying.…”

Percepção do corpo, medo da morte, religião e doação de órgãos

“…Estudo 3 O objetivo deste estudo foi dar destaque a duas importantes variáveis que surgiram, tanto no decorrer dos dois estudos anteriores (principalmente no primeiro), quanto na revisão da literatura científica especializada: as relações existentes entre medo da morte, religião e doação de órgãos. Na literatura, tanto o medo da morte (Kopfman & Smith, 1996;Shepherd & Lefcourt, 1992;, quanto os aspectos religiosos (Kent & Owens, 1995;Radecki & Jaccard, 1997;Riether & Mahler, 1995), estão associados à não doação de órgãos. O Estudo 1, embora tenha sido conduzido numa perspectiva qualitativa, também sugeriu a possibilidade de conexões entre o medo da morte e a opção pela doação de órgãos (doador ou não doador).…”

“…Além da percepção do corpo, também se levou em conta que a maneira como a morte é tratada nos dias de hoje, em nossa cultura ocidental, pode funcionar como um potencial fator a influenciar a predisposição das pessoas relativamente à doação (favorável ou não favorável a ela). Estudos têm demonstrado que, quanto maior o medo da morte, maior parece ser a recusa pela doação de órgãos (Kopfman & Smith, 1996;Shepherd & Lefcourt, 1992;. Ocorre que a doação de órgãos pode funcionar como um tipo de imagem negativa da morte: ela pode evocar esta última ou então pode potencializá-la , sobretudo quando parece estar ligada à mutilação do corpo após a morte, ou seja, à retirada de um órgão exatamente num momento dolorido para a família que perdeu, por exemplo, um ente querido (René, Vieira, Daniels & Santos, 1994).…”