The concept of self-care.
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Significant progress has been made in understanding the psychologic and behavioral aspects of cervical cancer. Descriptive data indicate acute trauma and disruption with the diagnosis and treatment, yet the majority of women return to precancer life. The notable exception to this is sexual functioning, which remains an area of significant morbidity. Future research will need to test variables that predict which women will be vulnerable to sexual dysfunction. Sexual self-concept (sexual self-schema), which is the extent to which a woman has a positive view of her own sexuality, appears to provide valuable information. The identification of such variables is an important step toward designing interventions for enhancing quality of life for patients with cervical cancer.
Despite the recent increase in interest in terminally ill children and their families and the post death adjustment of parents, there has been little research examining the adjustment and self concept of surviving siblings in such families. This paper discusses the results of a preliminary descriptive study of 28 children (from 14 families) whose brother or sister had died of cancer between 18 and 30 months previously. Behaviour checklists were completed by parents and teachers and self concept scales administered to the children. A lengthy semistructured interview was carried out, and measures of parental adjustment were gathered. A high percentage of children were found to be exhibiting emotional or behavioural difficulties, or both, and the results indicated that low self esteem was common. Parental and child adjustment were not found to be related inter se, nor did they seem to relate to the child's self esteem. Thus for many children the loss of a sibling might cause long term distress. Further, many children who did not manifest overt difficulties perceived themselves unfavourably in comparison with either their ideal or their dead sibling.
This study examined relationships between distal social contexts, parents' support for learning, self-concept, and adolescents' academic goal orientations. Data were collected from 435 female and 410 male 18-yr.-old South Africans. Multistage regression analyses indicated that family social status and rural/urban locality had unmediated relations with the adolescents' learning and performance goal orientations. In addition, parent and self-concept measures combined to have small independent associations with the adolescents' academic goal orientations.
We studied the relationship of dispositional and process variables with outcome in 52 bereaved patients given time-limited dynamic psychotherapy. Outcomes were generally favorable in symptom relief and improvement in relationship and occupational functioning. Patients' symptoms improved more than did their social and work functioning. Pretreatment levels of impairment or distress were significantly related to outcome, but most demographic and dispositional variables did not predict outcome. Process variables examined in relation to outcome--therapeutic alliance and actions by the therapist--were not significantly related to either type of outcome. When we considered the same process variables in interaction with two dispositional variables, motivation for dynamic therapy and developmental level of the self-concept, we found significant predictions of outcome. The major findings suggest that more exploratory actions were more suitable for highly motivated and/or better-organized patients and less suitable for patients with lower levels of motivation or organization of self-concept. More supportive actions were more suitable for patients at lower dispositional levels and less therapeutic for patients at higher levels.
The present study, conducted in 2003, Melbourne, Australia, examined and compared how different personal and social resources related to participants' use of both heroin and methadone, as well as their experiences of stigma and program regulation, and their evaluation of methadone treatment. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants (five men, five women) aged between 25 and 42. Participants who had diverse personal and social circumstances were purposefully sought. Findings showed that users with "non-addict" or "functional" self-concepts had more resources and supportive social relationships that assisted them to develop realistic treatment expectations, avoid the stigma associated with methadone, and focus on the benefits of the treatment. Conversely, "conflicted" users with limited resources, few social connections, and negative self-concept saw methadone as an addiction, and as a highly stigmatizing and disempowering intervention. Social policies that differentiate users and address ways of improving users' personal and social resources are now needed.
The nature and evaluation of a primary prevention project for students during the transition to high school are presented. In order to facilitate students' coping efforts during this transition, the project sought to increase the level of social support available as well as to reduce the degree of flux and complexity in the school setting. Midyear and end of ninth-grade assessments were done of Project and matched Control students' self-concepts. Their perceptions of the school environment, and their eighth- and ninth-grade attendance and grade averages examined. By the end of ninth grade, Project participants showed significantly better attendance records and grade point averages as well as more stable self-concepts than controls. Further, by the final evaluation point, Project students also reported perceiving the school environment as having greater clarity of expectations and organizational structure and higher levels of teacher support and involvement than did nonproject Controls.
Investigated the classroom teacher's ability to identify which students are at-risk for future school failure and how students so identified differ from their most able classmates. The intelligence, academic ability, and cognitive and affective competence of 337 Grade Six students, age 11 to 13, were assessed with standard group measures. Two hundred and eighty-four of these students had been identified previously by their teachers as being at-risk for failure to cope with Grade Seven because of a history of problems in school. The remaining 53 had been selected by their teachers as the most able students in their classes. Correlations between the teachers' ratings and standard measures of intelligence, cognitive ability, anxiety, self-concept, and academic achievement were all highly significant, as were correlations between these ratings and grades earned the following year in high school. Discriminant Analysis generated a function that separated the groups with 95.6% accuracy. The at-risk students, although of normal intelligence, were significantly less intellectually, cognitively and academically able, were more anxious, and had lower self-concepts.
The purpose of this project was to study how Internet use relates to psychological well-being, relationships, the self and identity. University students (N = 203) completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of time spent online, "pathological" Internet use, Internet motivation, loneliness, relationship quality, self-concept clarity, and ego identity. Results showed positive relationships between measures of Internet use and loneliness. As well, face-to-face relationships were rated higher on both positive and negative quality dimensions relative to online relationships. Finally, Internet use was negatively correlated with self-concept clarity, and associated with moratorium identity status. These results suggest that the Internet may be an important aid for young adults as they searched for an adult identity.
Conducted a community survey in the Fall of 1984 in a sample of high unemployment blue-collar census tracts in southeastern Michigan. Results of earlier analyses using these data showed that involuntarily unemployed workers had significantly elevated levels of depression, anxiety, somatization, and self-reported physical illness relative to a stably employed comparison group (Kessler, House, & Turner, 1987). Results presented in this paper document that this relationship is modified by social support (as measured by social integration and the availability of a confidant), self-concept, and various coping processes. Further analyses allowed us to determine the way in which these modifiers operate. The modifying effects of social support and coping operate primarily by buffering the impact of unemployment-related financial strain on the health outcomes. Self-concept operates primarily by attenuating vulnerability to other stressful life events. The implications of these results for the design and implementation of preventive interventions are discussed.
This paper describes a self-portrait scoring system and compares the self-portraits of two groups of adults. The scoring system effectively differentiated between the two groups of subjects which were known to differ on several observable behavioral characteristics. It correlated well with the ratings obtained from counselors but not with a self-report inventory of anxiety. A self-portrait is a single manifestation of an individual's self-concept. It presents only a fraction of the hypothetical universe of one's behavioral manifestations. In addition, every single observation is affected by the place, time, and the presence of the observer. However, if these isolated observations can be studied systematically, they can contribute to a reliable and a valid index of the self-concept. This paper presents one means of achieving that end.
There is a need to integrate career development theory with adult development theory and a need to include females in the research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mid-career crisis from the perspective of Erikson's and Super's theory, and to determine whether there are sex differences distinguishing mid-career changers. The sample consisted of 134 males and females who faced a mid-career crisis. They were categorized into three groups: changed, changing, and persisters representing different points on a decision-making continuum. All participants were given a structured interview, the Ego Identity Scale, the Tennessee Self Concept Scale, the Personality Research Form, and the Career Development Inventory. The results of the data analyses revealed that individuals who changed careers scored significantly higher on identity achievement and affiliation, and there was a significant positive correlation between identity achievement and self-concept. In terms of their vocational development, persisters were concerned with exploration tasks, whereas those who had changed careers described these tasks as declining in importance. In addition, five patterns of transition were identified. No sex differences emerged on the variables, indicating that career change as a pathway to identity achievement is similar for both sexes.
Evaluated the psychotherapeutic adjunct of bibliotherapy in a maximum security correctional setting with 54 volunteers from a general and segregation population. Results indicated no differences between the treatment methods, but significant increases in self-concept and internal locus of control with an interaction on the dependent measure of Chance locus of control. There were no significant effects on the dependent variables as a result of the level of participation of the volunteers. It was concluded that bibliotherapy may have a facilitative effect on self-concept and internal locus of control, but cannot be differentiated from the effects of therapist intervention.
To assess some of the emotional aspects of why parents seek genetic counseling and to measure the effect of genetic counseling in parents of children with Down's syndrome, pre- and post-counseling measures of anxiety, hostility, depression, and self-concept were obtained from 43 parents. Pre-counseling responses were compared with those of normative controls, and pre- and post-counseling scores were compared for areas of significant change. Anxiety, hostility and depression levels were significantly higher in parents seeking counseling than in normative controls (both P less than 0.002). Following genetic counseling, there was a significant lowering of anxiety (P less than 0.0005) and depression (P less than 0.05) along with a significant increase in overall self-concept (P less than 0.01). The study documents the importance of looking at factors related to emotional needs and self-image of parents in genetic counseling.
PURPOSE: To examine the role of both positive and negative styles of self-control, and gender-role stereotypes in binge eating and problem drinking. METHOD: Participants were 428 adolescent boys and 555 girls from predominantly Anglo-Australian backgrounds who attended regional state schools in New South Wales, Australia. Students completed standardized questionnaires that assessed problem drinking, binge eating, self-control styles, and identification with gender-role stereotypes. ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests were conducted to examine differences among adolescents who reported problems in binge eating, drinking, and both domains. RESULTS: Adolescents who reported eating and drinking problems also reported a high negative and a low positive sense of self-control coupled with self-identification with the traits that typically describe negative dimensions of gender-role stereotypes. Regardless of gender, problem drinking was mainly related to traits of negative masculinity (bossy, noisy aggressive, etc.) whereas binge eating was mainly related to negative femininity (shy, needs approval from others, etc.). Participants who reported eating and drinking symptoms recorded low scores on positive control, high scores on negative control, and also high scores on the negative dimensions of masculinity and femininity. SUMMARY: A negative and passive style of self-control coupled with an identification with negative dimensions of gender summarizes the type of self-regulation that is implicated in both binge eating and problem drinking, and co-morbid symptoms. There is a need for interventions working toward a more balanced gender self-concept and a positive sense of self-control.
Factors related to women's practice of breast self-examination (BSE) were studied in a sample of upper-middle-class women attending meetings of voluntary women's groups. Factors found to relate directly to frequency of BSE practice were high perceived benefits of BSE, low perceived barriers to BSE, and high self-concept. Correlations with perceived susceptibility/seriousness of breast cancer, age, perceived level of social support, and social network properties were not significant. A multiple regression analysis was done with BSE frequency as criterion variable: perceived threat (susceptibility/seriousness) and perceived benefits minus perceived barriers were entered hierarchically; age, self-concept, and total social support were entered as a group. Perceived benefits minus barriers was the only significant predictor variable, R2 = .27. These findings underline the importance of assessing detective behaviors such as BSE as potentially different from preventive behaviors.