| Abstract: | This study examined the perceptions that 55 older married stroke patients had about themselves and about the motivations of their caregiving spouses when they judged their spouses' actions to be helpful and when they judged them to be unhelpful. It also examined how these perceptions were related to patients' well-being (depression, positive affect, marital satisfaction). Patients had more negative perceptions of themselves and of their spouses when they judged the actions to be unhelpful than when they judged them to be helpful. The hypothesis that perceptions about unhelpful actions would be more strongly related to patients' well-being than would perceptions about helpful actions was only partially supported. Perceptions about unhelpful actions were related to patients' depression, but perceptions about helpful actions were related to positive affect. Both kinds of perceptions were related to marital satisfaction. Findings begin to explicate the complex relationship between perceived helpfulness of actions and well-being. |
