Social Psychological Aspects of Chronic Illness

Quality of Life Following Prostate Cancer: The Role of Agency and Unmitigated Agency1

“…On the positive side, the traditional male gender role would seem to be an advantage to the extent that an illness is construed as a problem that is meant to be solved. On the negative side, the traditional male gender role could be a liability to the extent that help is needed from others and the traditional male is unwilling to express vulnerabilities that would elicit help from others (for a further discussion of these issues, see Helgeson & Reynolds, 2002).…”

Beyond medical diagnosis: Factors contributing to life satisfaction of women with epilepsy in Israel

“…For women with epilepsy, changes in body image depend on many factors including the physical changes the woman experiences, her physical disabilities, society's attitude, and the cultural concept of the society she lives in [47]. It is evident that for the women in the study, the illness also leaves its mark on the way they perceive their bodies, as found in other studies that indicated the negative impact of coping with chronic illness on body image, for example, among CP patients [51], adolescents with hearing impairment, and women with breast cancer [52]. Our hypothesis was that women with a higher body image would report a higher level of life satisfaction.…”

Virtual Care for Indigenous Populations in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand: Protocol for a Scoping Review

“…Optimism is associated with less anxiety, depression and more life satisfaction among individuals suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. There is also evidence that people with a sense of high self-esteem, control and optimism adjust more successfully to chronic illness (Helgeson & Reynolds, 2002). Optimism has been associated with lower pain at initial onset of arthritis and interestingly higher pain for those with established disease, reflecting possibly unmet expectations of improvement or betterment of their condition (Treharne, et al, 2005).…”

“…Low perceived mastery includes feelings of helplessness and is associated with worse health and psychological outcomes (M. Daniel, O'Dea, Rowley, McDermott, & Kelly, 1999;Gonder-Frederisk, et al, 2002). Lower feelings of mastery may be more frequent among those with chronic illnesses because of the progressive physical deterioration and unpredictable symptom flare-ups common in many chronic diseases (Helgeson & Reynolds, 2002), and the greater likelihood of individuals with chronic illness or physical disability to be confronted with problems that are not amenable to problem solving (Penninx, et al, 1996). A high sense of mastery has been linked to improved physical and psychological health status among individuals with arthritis (Barlow, Cullen, & Rowe, 2002;Burke, et al, 2002) and among Aboriginal peoples, good mastery skills have been associated with healthy blood lipid levels (Mark Daniel, Rowley, Herbert, O'Dea, & Green, 2001) and low fasting glucose levels (Mark Daniel, Gamble, Henderson, & Burgess, 1995).…”