Model Of Psychological Health Research Articles

Constructs and models in health psychology: The case of personality and illness reporting in diabetes mellitus

Objectives. Construct overlap among important variables in health psychology was studied. Competing theories related to the reporting of medically unexplained symptoms (somatization) and illness severity were examined. These objectives were studied in the setting of insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).Design. A correlational design was employed. Sufficient numbers of participants were sought in order to test theories of symptom reporting using structural equation modelling and other multivariate techniques.Methods. Two hundred and two people with IDDM attending a diabetes out‐patient clinic acted as participants. Personality traits, alexithymia and illness‐related coping factors were the key psychological constructs studied. Experience of medically unexplained symptoms (somatization) and diabetes severity were measured.Results. Neuroticism, alexithymia and negative emotion coping were all significantly related to somatization, and there was significant construct overlap. Competing models of symptom reports—transactional versus negative affectivity—were formulated and tested using structural equation modelling. However, the best fitting model was one that integrated features of both. Constructs showed considerable overlap, with evidence for a very general factor related to the reporting of negative affects and bodily disturbances. However, there is also evidence of unique variance in constructs, especially that of negative emotion coping.Conclusions. Important constructs used in health psychology show significant overlap, and this general source of variance warrants further study. Despite overlap, constructs contributed unique variance to health outcomes. Transactional and negative affectivity models of symptom reporting may be reconciled in an integrated model. Generalization of the models tested here to other illness samples and healthy individuals is recommended. Suggestions are made for further research to refine constructs in health psychology and to limit their present profusion.

Reason and emotion In psychotherapy: Thirty years on

In summary, then, in 1962 RET displayed important features still current. These include the interrelatedness of cognitive, emotive and behavioural processes, the important role that cognition plays in psychological problems, its humanistic view of the self and the futility and dangers of self-rating. The emphasis on perpetuation rather than acquisition processes of emotional disturbance holds good now as it did then, and the core view of therapeutic change is essentially the same now as it was in 1962, despite further, more recent elaborations. Also, one can find the beginnings of a model of psychological health in 1962 that has been more fully developed since that time. Significant change has occurred in RET since 1962 that updates several of Ellis's original ideas. These include the distinction between interpretations (or inferences) and evaluations, the primacy of musts in accounting for psychological disturbance, the clear distinction between healthy and unhealthy negative emotions and the greater role accorded to force and energy in the change process. Aspects of psychoanalytic theory, as well as conditioning theory featured in 1962 no longer appear, and a greater emphasis is placed on biological aspects of emotional disturbance now than thirty years ago. Finally, a greater range of cognitive, imaginal, emotive and behavioural methods are found in current RET literature than inReason and Emotion in Psychotherapy where Ellis restricts himself to illustrating a few cognitive and behavioural techniques. RET, then, has grown and developed over the past thirty years. In large part, this reflects the theory's flexibility and the competent people who have worked to make RET one of the most viable and widely used cognitive-behaviour therapies. Of these, I modestly include myself!

From predictor variables to cognition models in health psychology: A commentary on schwarzer's theoretical analysis

From predictor variables to cognition models in health psychology: A commentary on schwarzer's theoretical analysis

Clinical Applications of a Control Model of Psychological Health

The applications of one aspect of a control model of psychological health are illustrated by the use of two cases referred for stress-related disorders. This model involves four quadrants describing dimensions of control: quadrant one (active control, positive assertive); quadrant two (letting go control, positive yielding); quadrant three (overcontrol, negative assertive); and quadrant four (too little control, negative yielding). Increased psychological health is presumed to occur when scores for quadrants one and two increase; and scores for quadrants three and four decrease. These two cases, though presenting quite different pre-test profiles, revealed rather consistent post-test changes in the expected direction. Follow-up data showed varying degrees of relapse. The discussion section suggests additional areas which future research needs to examine in order to develop a more comprehensive control based model of psychotherapy.

Fostering a border understanding of health and health care: The health psychology model

Fostering a border understanding of health and health care: The health psychology model

Book Review: Fostering a Broader Understanding of Health and Health Care: The Health Psychology Model

Book Review: Fostering a Broader Understanding of Health and Health Care: The Health Psychology Model

Health complaints, stress, and distress: exploring the central role of negative affectivity.

Most current models in health psychology assume that stress adversely affects physical health. We re-examined this assumption by reviewing extensive data from the literature and from six samples of our own, in which we collected measures of personality, health and fitness, stress, and current emotional functioning. Results indicate that self-report health measures reflect a pervasive mood disposition of negative affectivity (NA); self-report stress scales also contain a substantial NA component. However, although NA is correlated with health compliant scales, it is not strongly or consistently related to actual, long-term health status, and thus will act as a general nuisance factor in health research. Because self-report measures of stress and health both contain a significant NA component, correlations between such measures likely overestimate the true association between stress and health. Results demonstrate the importance of including different types of health measures in health psychology research.

Treatment of identity and intimacy issues in gay males.

A psychodynamic analysis of the presenting problems of many gay male clients reveals the frequent presence of issues related to identity and intimacy. This paper explores these concepts from the viewpoint of observed clinical phenomena, their likely antecedents, and treatment strategies based on a model of psychological health which balances identity and intimacy.

A “control” model of psychological health: Relation to “traditional” and “liberated” sex-role stereotypes (investigation and extension of a construct)

In this article, a “control” model is applied to an analysis of four sex-role stereotypes (traditional males and females; liberated males and females) in which optimal psychological health is assumed to be a balance of active-positive and passive-positive control skills. These stereotypes are then compared and contrasted with respondents' views of psychologically healthy males and females. The study generated descriptive profiles of these sex-role stereotypes in terms of their perceived tendencies toward active/passive, negative/positive control from a group of 270 well-educated individuals primarily in the health and helping professions. Results of the study indicated that traditional males were seen as characterized primarily by active control; and traditional females were characterized primarily by yielding or passive control. The psychologically healthy male, on the other hand, was characterized by approximately equal proportions of active and yielding control; further, he was seen significantly more positively than the traditional male. The psychologically healthy female resembled the psychologically healthy male, but was characterized by a considerably greater degree of active control. Profiles of liberated males and females were intermediate between the traditional and healthy profiles. Liberated females tended to be viewed as very similar to traditional males in terms of their perceived endorsements of active and passive control; however, they were seen more positively than traditional males and females, but less positively than psychologically healthy males and females. The liberated male most closely resembled psychologically healthy profiles, and in particular, like the psychologically healthy male, was described as having a balance of active and passive control.

Effects of Intensive Meditation on Sex-Role Identification: Implications for a Control Model of Psychological Health

This study assessed the impact of a 3-mo. meditation retreat on 15 respondents' self-perceived masculinity and femininity. As hypothesized, male and female subjects, who on pretest perceived themselves to be more stereotypically feminine than normative samples, on posttest reported a significant shift to even greater endorsement of feminine adjectives and less endorsement of masculine adjectives.

Natural history of male psychological health: IX. Empirical evidence for Erikson's model of the life cycle.

The authors examine Erikson's model of the life cycle by reviewing two 40-year prospective studies, one of 392 men from high-crime core-city neighborhoods and the other of 94 successful college students. The empirically defined developmental stage of each man at age 47 and many other facets of each man's life course were rated by judges blind to other data. The studies identified a well-defined, career consolidation stage that falls between Erikson's stages of intimacy and generativity. The results support three hypotheses. First, the stages of men's life cycle must be passed through sequentially; failure to master one stage usually precludes mastery of subsequent stages. Second, the age at which a given stage is mastered varies enormously. Third, the stage attained by middle life appears quite independent of childhood social class or education, although adult maturation is correlated with whether childhood was conducive to basic trust, autonomy, and initiative.

Toward a process model of psychological health.

Toward a process model of psychological health.