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Biomedical subjects

M A Okun

Publications and source records attributed to M A Okun.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The effects of personal relevance of topic and information type on older adults' accurate recall of written medical passages about osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the influence of information type (based on whether the text affirmed the reader's veridical beliefs or disconfirmed the reader's erroneous beliefs) and self-reported osteoarthritis status on older adults' accurate recall of written medical passages about osteoarthritis. METHODS: One week after reading the passages, adults aged 65 through 80 without osteoarthritis (n = 46) and with osteoarthritis (n = 31) completed a cued recall task that focused on accurate memory of what the passage said. RESULTS: Disconfirming information was less accurately recalled than affirming information. Whereas self-reported osteoarthritis status was not significantly (p >.05) related to accurate recall of affirming information, it was significantly (p <.05) related to accurate recall of disconfirming information. DISCUSSION: Older adults with osteoarthritis were more likely than older adults without osteoarthritis to misrepresent the content of the passages as supporting their misconceptions.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

A comparison of the influence of conflictual and supportive social interactions on psychological distress.

Following a quantitative review examining the relative influence of positive and negative social exchanges on emotional health, a second-order factor model of negative social exchange was tested and supported in a sample of 906 college students. Structural equation analysis exploring the unique effects of negative social exchange and perceived support satisfaction on depression revealed both variables to predict this outcome, over and above the contribution of personality and coping variables. In addition to the direct effects of the Big Five personality dimensions on depression, indirect effects of the Big Five via negative social exchange, support satisfaction, and avoidant coping also were observed. Although the prevailing belief among support researchers is that the negative effects of conflictual social interactions outweigh the positive effects of social support, the results of the quantitative review suggest boundary conditions that qualify this conclusion. In addition to corroborating a hierarchical measurement model of negative social exchange, the results of the present investigation suggest that how social support and social negativity are measured substantially influences conclusions concerning their relative impact on psychological distress.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1998

Effects of positive and negative social exchanges with various sources on depressive symptoms in younger and older adults.

Addressing a previous gap in the gerontological literature, the present study examined the effects of both positive and negative social exchanges within key relationships (spouse, children, and other relatives/friends) on the depressive symptoms of younger (28 to 59 years old) and older (60 to 92 years old) men and women. Separate analyses were carried out on younger adults (N = 452) and older adults (N = 849) who were respondents in the Americans' Changing Lives study. In both age groups, positive and negative social exchanges with the same source were significantly (p < .001), inversely related (rs range from -.23 to -.43); and positive social exchanges exerted stronger net effects on depressive symptoms than negative social exchanges. For older adults, some buffering effects were found when negative and positive social exchanges were associated with different sources; for younger adults, buffering effects were found when negative and positive social exchanges were associated with the same source. These buffering effects were not conditioned by gender. The findings of the present study highlight the importance of taking into account the age of the recipient and the provider-recipient relationship when studying the joint influence of negative and positive social exchanges on adults' depressive symptoms.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

The relations of dispositional regulation and emotionally to elder's empathy-related responding and affect while volunteering.

Researchers recently have proposed that various empathy-related reactions are differentially related to individual differences in emotional intensity and regulation. This idea was tested with a sample of elderly hospital volunteers. As predicted, dispositional sympathy was associated with high levels of both dispositional regulation and negative emotional intensity. Personal distress was linked with low regulation and high negative emotional intensity, and cognitive perspective taking was associated with high regulation. Perspective taking moderated the relation of emotional intensity to sympathy and personal distress. In addition, elders' negative affect when volunteering at a hospital was correlated with low regulation and high levels of regulation and dispositional sympathy. The results demonstrate the findings pertaining to vicarious emotional responding are generalizable to nonstudent populations engaged in planned, sustained helping behavior.

Affect↗
PubMed1994

Older readers' processing of medical information that contradicts their beliefs.

Older adults' memory for accurate information which either contradicted their previously held false beliefs or affirmed their previously held true beliefs about osteoarthritis was studied. Independent variables included information type (text affirms or disconfirms the reader's initial belief), explicitness of statement (explicit vs implicit statement of the target belief), filler tasks (repetition vs filter tasks), passage order, and time. Participants were 125 adults (65-80 years old) with average vocabularies who self-reported having osteoarthritis for at least two years. In support of a schema-copy plus tag model, we found (a) false alarm rates were higher for schema-related than for topic-related recognition distractors; (b) updating of erroneous opinions from pretest to immediate posttest was positively correlated with maintenance of accurate recognition from immediate to delayed posttest; and (c) disconfirming information was less accurately recognized and recalled than affirming information. Explicit text presentation and repetition of recognition and opinion tasks enhanced accurate recognition of disconfirming information. Findings suggest that older readers often have difficulty distinguishing between their erroneous prior knowledge and accurate information presented in text.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Subjective well-being measures: reliability and validity among Spanish elders.

The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale, Life Satisfaction Index, and Affect Balance Scale were translated into Castilian Spanish and Catalan. Responses to these scales were obtained by interviews with 151 elderly persons living in Spain. Reliability estimates for the Life Satisfaction Index and the Affect Balance subscales were comparable to those for English-speaking samples, while reliability estimates for the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale were somewhat lower. Validity estimates among these scales were consistent with previous research and previously reported factor structures were found to fit the present data reasonably well, although factor loadings were lower than those previously reported. English and translated versions of the scales are provided in Appendix A.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1993

Predictors of volunteer status in a retirement community.

In the present study, actual volunteers, latent volunteers, conditional volunteers, and definite nonvolunteers living in a retirement community are compared on social-structural, role, environmental, resource, lifestyle, and individual difference variables. Three functions emerged from the discriminant analysis. Actual volunteers attend church frequently, are free of activity limitations due to health, have volunteered previously, and belong to several clubs and organizations. Latent volunteers engage in informal religious behaviors, attend church about once a month, are about seventy years old (i.e., they are younger than the other groups), and are very satisfied with their neighborhood. Conditional volunteers engage infrequently informal religious behavior, have no instrumental activity limitations due to health, did not attend college, have very high neighborhood satisfaction, and are seventy-four years old (i.e., older than latent volunteers and actual volunteers). Implications for recruiting latent and conditional volunteers are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1992

A comparison of office and adult day care center older volunteers: social-psychological and demographic differences.

Numerous researchers have compared older adults who volunteer with those who do not volunteer on several demographic variables. In contrast, in the present study we compared older adults (minimum age = 55 years old) who volunteered to work for a community organization at an office or in a day care center on social-psychological and demographic predictors. It was hypothesized that day care center volunteers would have higher scores than office volunteers on sympathy, role taking, and self-based salience of volunteer role (i.e., personal identity). In addition, office volunteers were expected to have higher scores than day care center volunteers on other-based salience of volunteer role (i.e., social identity). Discriminant function analysis indicated that day care center volunteers were higher than office volunteers on sympathy whereas office volunteers were higher than day care center volunteers on educational attainment, involvement in clubs and organizations, and role taking.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

A meta-analysis of subjective well-being interventions among elders.

This meta-analysis demonstrated that interventions have a significant (p less than .05) immediate posttreatment influence on elders' subjective well-being but that their beneficial effect dissipates within 1 month. For 28 effect sizes derived from immediate posttreatment occasions (delay = 0 days), the median value was 0.67. Immediate posttreatment effect sizes for control enhancement (M = 1.12), psychoeducational (M = 0.70), and social activity (M = 0.66) treatments were significantly (p less than .05) above zero and not significantly different from each other. In contrast, for 17 effect sizes derived from delayed posttest occasions (delay greater than 0 days), the median value was 0.07. For effect sizes extracted from studies with both an immediate and a delayed posttest, the mean decrease over a 30-day period was 1.02.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Negative daily events, positive and negative social ties, and psychological distress among older adults.

This study examined whether positive and negative social ties moderate the effects of negative daily events on psychological distress of 110 community-dwelling elders age 60-89. In accord with the stress-buffering hypothesis, the effect of negative daily events on psychological distress significantly (p less than .05) decreased as positive social ties increased. Contrary to the stress-amplifying hypothesis, negative social ties did not interact with negative daily events to influence psychological distress, but instead, had a significant (p less than .01) additive effect on it.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Positive and negative social ties among older adults: measurement models and the prediction of psychological distress and well-being.

The factor structure of positive and negative social ties was studied among 246 older adults who were either recently physically disabled, recently conjugally bereaved, or matched controls. Covariance structure analyses were carried out on a network measure to determine whether positive and negative social ties represent independent domains of social experience, and to assess the degree to which their structure is invariant across groups undergoing major loss transitions. Positive and negative social ties were found to be independent and there was substantial similarity in their factor structure across the three groups. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, whereas positive social ties were related to psychological well-being, negative social ties were predictive of both psychological well-being and distress. These results demonstrate the importance of assessing both positive and negative ties in explaining the psychological adjustment of older adults.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1989

Life stress and lymphocyte alterations among patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The relation between life stress and immune parameters was investigated for 33 female rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients interviewed during three routine monthly clinic checkups. Life stress from major and minor events, coping efficacy, and self-reported psychological distress were assessed, and immunofluorescence of T-cells and B-cells was performed on the blood drawn during each visit. Small stressful events were positively related to the proportion of circulating B-cells, psychological distress was inversely related to proportion of circulating T-cells, and major life events were associated with lower T-helper/T-suppressor cell ratios.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1986

Structure of subjective well-being among the elderly.

This article interprets subjective well-being within the framework of cognitive theories of emotion. A model consisting of three recurrent components of expressions of well-being--positive affect, negative affect, and cognition--was compared with two variations of models proposed by Liang. Drawing two random samples of persons with minimum age equal to 65 from the Myth and Reality of Aging in America Survey, lisrel analyses were undertaken on 17 items from the Affect Balance Scale and the Life Satisfaction Index Form A. All models provided an acceptable fit as indicated by ratios of chi-square to degrees of freedom. Implications are noted for the conceptualization and study of subjective well-being.

Affect↗
PubMed1984

Quality of research on correlates of subjective well-being in adulthood.

Social scientists in general and social gerontologists in particular have investigated extensively the correlates of subjective well-being in adulthood. This paper examined whether ratings of study quality for 280 research reports on the correlates of subjective well-being in adulthood vary with year of report, type of report, journal focus, and study quality dimension. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that Year of Report and Journal Focus were related to quality of study ratings. There were differences by Year of Report on ratings of significance of the problem, adequacy of sampling, appropriateness of statistical analyses, and adequacy of research report. Studies published in journals with an "aging" focus relative to those in journals with a "non aging" focus were rated higher on adequacy of the measuring instrument and reasonableness of the conclusions. The mean rating across all items was 2.67, indicating that the average study was judged to meet less than "some requirements." Concerns are noted for definition of the problem, relevance of the population, adequacy of sampling, and adequacy of control for errors.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Health and subjective well-being: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis was conducted of the health/subjective well-being relationship, based upon studies of United States adults published prior to 1980. Dependent variables were zero-order and first-order correlations. A total of 231 zero-order effect size estimates were extracted from 104 different sources, while a total of 189 first-order effect sizes were extracted from thirty-three different sources. The majority of effect sizes were derived from samples where the midpoint of the age range was sixty-five and over. The 95 percent confidence interval estimates, generated using Tukey's jackknife procedure, were .29 to .35 and .29 to .38 for the zero-order and first-order correlations, respectively. Using weighted regression procedures, univariate analyses indicated that all but one study and sample characteristics were significant (p less than .05) predictors of zero-order and first-order correlations, though none of the predictors adequately specified variation in effect sizes. The mean value of the first-order correlations varied with the type of control variable, ranging from .42 (age) to .27 (SES composite). Health and subjective well-being were found to be positively and significantly related. Limitations of the meta-analysis were noted and suggestions were made for strengthening research on this topic.

Adaptation, Psychological↗