Eating Disorder Recovery

Abstract

Qualitative studies addressing the eating disorder recovery process from the client's point of view are notably absent in the literature. For this case study, we conducted a retrospective examination of the recovery process, as recounted by a 37-year-old female who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, binge eating/purging subtype at the age of 30. Two in-person interview sessions provided insight into coping skills, multidisciplinary intervention strategies, and long-term treatment challenges. In sum, the client's perspective can add new information to the understanding of eating disorder recovery from feminist and other theoretical frameworks.     

Emotional approach coping: Gender differences on psychological adjustment in young to middle-aged cancer survivors

Objective : The effect of emotional approach coping (EAC) varies by gender. However, this gender difference has not yet been investigated in cancer survivors. We investigated whether the effects of two kinds of EAC – emotional processing (EP) and emotional expression (EE) – vary by gender and whether EAC has effects above and beyond the effect of other coping strategies.

Design : EAC and other coping strategies were assessed at baseline in a sample of 248 young to middle-aged adult (between the age of 22 and 55) cancer survivors. One hundred and sixty-six survivors responded to psychological adjustment one year later.

Results : EAC had different relationships with Time 2 adjustment in men and women. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that for men, EE predicted lower intrusive thoughts and, for women, EP was associated with higher positive affect when other coping strategies and EE were controlled.

Conclusion : Gender differences held true in cancer survivors, and EAC was effective when other coping strategies were controlled. Further, EE was effective in reducing negative adjustment in men while EP was helpful in promoting positive adjustment in women.     

Psychosocial consequences of recurrent vertigo

Abstract

Chronic vertigo is known to be associated with anxiety and depression in a significant proportion of patients, but there have been no systematic investigations into beliefs and behaviour related to recurrent vertigo. Twenty-three individuals with vertigo of various types were interviewed, generating over two thousand statements about vertigo and its psychosocial consequences. By means of progressive categorisation these were condensed into four tables of summary statements representing prevalent reactions to and effects of vertigo. Vertigo is viewed as intrinsically frightening and potentially stigmatising. In an attempt to avoid provoking attacks, particularly in public, subjects tended to impose restrictions on their activities and lifestyle which generated further feelings of helplessness and frustration. The statements obtained in this study provide an empirical basis for the development of a model that may be used to formulate predictions about the relationship between vertigo, handicap and distress, and the benefits of intervention.     

Situational aspects are more important in shaping proactive coping behaviour than individual characteristics: A vignette study among adults preparing for ageing

It seems likely that proactive coping is an important mechanism for dealing successfully with threats to personal goals, yet little empirical research has been conducted in relation to this concept. The aim of the present study is to examine to what extent proactive coping is influenced by situation-specific features as well as by personal characteristics. Three vignettes, each representing a potential decline in an important resource (health, social relationships and finance), were presented to 123 adults between 50 and 70 years old. Multilevel analyses show that proactive coping is highly variable within persons and that three situational factors (type of stressor, appraised threat and appraised control) affected the employment of proactive coping strategies. Future temporal orientation was identified as a significant, positive predictor of proactive coping, but none of the other personal factors were found to be relevant.     

Psychoneuroimmunology and male infertility: A possible link between stress,coping and male immunological infertility

Abstract

This current study investigated a link between stress and coping with some male infertility problems via psychoneuroimmunological theories. The study was carried out on 77 males who came to a fertility clinic for sperm diagnosis. Appraisal and coping with stress reaction to negative life events and to infertility were related to non-sperm cells within the seminal plasma. Those men who had felt strained from external events and from problems of infertility, and had used emotional escape coping strategies, were more prone to have an immunosuppressed reaction, indicated by bacteria within their plasma. Those using task focused control strategies were more prone to have an immunostimulatory reaction, indicated by white blood cells, including in some cases, sperm destroying phagocytes suggesting a possible auto-immunity reaction. When the analyses were done separately on patients with known male fertility problems in comparison with those with unexplained infertility, the two opposing psychoneuroimmunological processes became more pronounced.     

Self-determination and functional persuasion to encourage physical activity

This research advances a novel approach to promoting physical activity, based on the principle of functional matching in persuasion, and the self-concordance (SC) of people's motivations for physical activity. We propose that SC establishes a positive or negative orientation toward the challenge inherent in physical activity, and that the maximum yield of participation will be achieved by communications that appeal to each orientation. In two studies, we compared how messages emphasizing challenge versus available social support would influence recipients’ self-reported practices of physical activity and attitudes toward a physical activity setting. As hypothesized, these messages had differential effects for recipients whose pursuit of physical activity varied in SC, such that favorable outcomes were more reliably associated with challenge-oriented messages among respondents higher in SC versus support-oriented messages among respondents lower in SC. The findings suggest the merits of using self-regulatory, compared with object- or personality-based, constructs and measures to indicate psychological functions of ongoing health-related behaviors.     

Social comparison,coping and depression in people with spinal cord injury

The present study among 70 people with spinal cord injury examined the prevalence and correlates of identification (seeing others as a potential future) and contrast (seeing others in competitive terms) in social comparison as related to coping and depression. The most prevalent social comparison strategy was downward contrast (a positive response to seeing others who were worse-off), followed by upward identification (a positive response to perceiving better-off others as a potential future), downward identification (a negative response to perceiving worse-off others as a potential future), and upward contrast (a negative response to seeing others who were better-off). Those with less severe lesions reported the highest levels of upward contrast, coping through blaming others, and depression. Downward contrast was particularly related to constructive coping, and upward identification to wishful thinking. The less adaptive social comparison strategies, i.e., upward contrast and downward identification, were quite strongly related to wishful thinking and blaming others. Particularly upward contrast, i.e., feeling bad as response to seeing that others are better-off, was related to depression.     

Men’s strategies for preserving emotional well-being in advanced prostate cancer: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Objective: This study explores men with advanced prostate cancers’ own practices for promoting and maintaining emotional well-being using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Design: Five men with advanced prostate cancer participated in face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth interviews.

Results: Within rich narratives of lost and regained well-being, two super-ordinate themes emerged – ‘living with an imminent and uncertain death’ and ‘holding on to life.’ Well-being was threatened by reduced sense of the future, isolation and uncertainty. Yet, the men pursued well-being by managing their emotions, striving for the future whilst enjoying life in the present, taking care of their families and renegotiating purpose. Running through participant’s accounts was a preference for taking action and problem-solving. Sense of purpose, social connectedness, and life engagement were revealed as concepts central to improving well-being, indicating areas which practitioners could explore with men to help them re-establish personal goals and life purpose.

Conclusions: The findings also add weight to the evidence base for the potential value of psychological interventions such as cognitive behaviour therapy and mindfulness in men with prostate cancer.     

Dispositional and comparative optimism interact to predict avoidance of a looming health threat

Research indicates that when confronted with a health threat, individuals high in both dispositional and comparative optimism employ a more avoidant style of coping than individuals high in dispositional but low in comparative optimism. We examined the hypothesis that threat distance moderates this interactive optimism association. In two studies, participants were randomly assigned to a looming or distant threat condition. Study 1 revealed that in the looming threat condition, participants high in both forms of optimism were more likely to minimise the threat and less inclined to seek additional health information relative to participants high in dispositional but low in comparative optimism. In Study 2, the same interaction pattern emerged on a measure of psychological abstraction suggesting these variables combine to alter broad information processing strategies. Implications for considering multiple forms of optimism when delivering health status information are discussed.     

Do sedentary motives adversely affect physical activity? Adding cross-behavioural cognitions to the theory of planned behaviour

The purpose of this study was to explore whether sedentary behavior cognitions explain physical activity (PA) intention and behavior when integrated within the theory of planned behavior framework (TPB). A random community sample of 206 adults and a sample of 174 undergraduate students completed measures of the TPB pertaining to PA and four popular leisure-time behaviors (TV viewing, computer use, sedentary hobbies, and sedentary socializing) and an adapted Godin Leisure-Time Exercize Questionnaire (community sample = cross-sectional, undergraduate sample = 2-week prospective). Results using ordinary least squares regression provided evidence that TV viewing intention explains additional variance in PA behavior, and affective attitude (community sample) and perceived behavioral control (undergraduate sample) towards TV viewing explains additional variance in PA intention even after controlling for PA-related TPB constructs. These results underscore the potential value of adding sedentary control interventions in concert with PA promotion.