Suchergebnisse

The aims of this study were (1) to explore the degree of concordance/discordance between the illness perceptions of patients with a chronic illness and those of their partners, and (2) to examine the relationship between the concordance/discordance of couples' illness perceptions and social support exchange processes. In a cross-sectional study, 119 chronic patients and their partners completed questionnaires assessing their illness perceptions (IPQ-R) as well as the social support received by the patients and that provided by the partners (BSSS). The degree of concordance between the illness perceptions of patients and partners was assessed and related to received and provided social support. The concordance between patients' and partners' illness perceptions regarding the patient's chronic illness was quite high. In general, in couples with negative-concordant illness perceptions, more social support was received and provided than in couples with positive-concordant illness perceptions and in couples with discordant illness perceptions. Most of the differences between groups were found for informational social support. Findings indicate that the concordance of illness perceptions between patients and their partners is related to social support exchange processes. This demonstrates the importance of the involvement of patients' partners in the process of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Zusammenfassung. Soziale Netzwerke und insbesondere soziale Unterstützung werden als ein zentraler vermittelnder Mechanismus zwischen Optimismus und Gesundheit diskutiert. In dieser Studie wird die Annahme geprüft, dass Optimisten, Pessimisten und Realisten unterschiedliche soziale Reaktionen hervorrufen. Den Probanden (N = 168) wurden Vignetten präsentiert, in denen eine Zielperson (Target) optimistisches, pessimistisches bzw. realistisches Bewältigungsverhalten in einer Stresssituation zeigt. Anschließend wurden per Fragebogen (a) die Bewertung des Verhaltens und der Persönlichkeit des Targets, (b) die Sympathie gegenüber dem Target sowie (c) die Bereitschaft zu sozialer Unterstützung erfasst. Hinsichtlich des Verhaltens, der Persönlichkeit sowie der Sympathie wurden die optimistischen und realistischen Targets positiver bewertet als die pessimistischen Targets. Allerdings gingen diese positiveren Bewertungen der Optimisten und Realisten im Vergleich zu den Pessimisten nicht mit einer höheren Unterstützungsbereitschaft einher. Der Zusammenhang zwischen Optimismus und Gesundheit wird möglicherweise nicht nur über die vom sozialen Umfeld tatsächlich zur Verfügung gestellte Unterstützung, sondern auch durch den Ausdruck sozialer Akzeptanz vermittelt.

Abstract. At a broad level, the Konstanz Health Psychology research group aims at understanding the judgment and decision making processes underlying health-relevant behaviors. Towards this goal, several more specific research agendas are addressed. A primary aim is to understand the transition from knowing about risks to personally feeling at risk. In particular, we study the reception of relevant personalised health feedback such as feedback on cholesterol levels or blood pressure. Contrary to the dominant models of biased reasoning, our results on feedback reception suggest that people respond adaptively to health risk feedback. Furthermore, we study changes in the perception of health risk across time and their associated effects on the onset, maintenance, and cessation of health-relevant behaviors. In current research, we try to utilize methods from affective neuroscience for assessing affective and intuitive processes relevant to personal feelings of risk. These efforts are motivated by the broader goal of developing theoretical frameworks that can be applied across a range of behavioral domains.