ILLNESS REPRESENTATIONS AND MATCHING LABELS WITH SYMPTOMS
ILLNESS REPRESENTATIONS AND MATCHING LABELS WITH SYMPTOMS
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DOI：
10.1037/0278-6133.8.4.449
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发表时间：
1989-01-01
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
LEVENTHAL, H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
BAUMANN, LJ;CAMERON, LD;LEVENTHAL, H
据报道，三项研究表明，健康相关信息（例如血压 [BP] 或症状）会启动主动认知搜索过程，从而构建疾病表征。研究 1 表明，告知受试者其血压升高会影响疾病表征的两个属性：身份（标签和症状）以及健康威胁的时间线或预期时间顺序。获得高血压读数的受试者报告了通常与高血压相关的症状，特别是如果他们将高血压读数归因于压力。研究 2 表明，主动搜索过程使用因果信息（表征的第三个属性）来赋予症状意义。具体来说，受试者使用环境线索来解释熟悉的、不熟悉的和模糊的症状是否是由于疾病或压力造成的。在研究3中，我们表明，由高血压读数引发的建设性过程是由先前对发生高血压的时间线的信念以及有关受试者日常生活压力的外部线索的存在所指导的。认为血压不稳定且日常压力较高的受试者或认为血压稳定且日常压力较低的受试者报告了更多症状。讨论了这些发现对于理解人们如何处理疾病表征构建中涉及的诊断标签和症状信息的重要性。
Three studies are reported that show that health-relevant information (eg, blood pressure [BP] or symptoms) initiates an active cognitive search process that results in the construction of an illness representation. Study 1 showed that informing subjects that their BP was elevated affected two attributes of illness representation: identity (label and symptoms), and time line or expected chronology of the health threat. Subjects given a high-BP reading reported symptoms commonly associated with high BP, especially if they attributed the high-BP reading to stress. Study 2 showed that the active search process uses causal information (a third attribute of representations) to give meaning to symptoms. Specifically, subjects used environmental cues to interpret whether familiar, unfamiliar, and ambiguous symptoms were due to illness or to stress. In Study 3 we showed that the constructive process, initiated by a high-BP reading, is directed by prior beliefs about the time line for developing high BP and by the presence of external cues about the stressfulness of the subject’s daily life. Subjects who believed BP was labile and that they were under high daily stress or who believed BP was stable and that they were under low daily stress reported more symptoms. The significance of these findings for understanding how people process diagnostic labels and symptom information involved in the construction of illness representations is discussed.