Personal Worth Research Articles

Descending the career ladder

The policy of employing some but not all academic researchers through short-term contracts is highly divisive, in that it creates a two-tier system not only of opportunities and expectations but also of personal worth and value. Far more women than men are trapped in these career cul-de-sacs, and a seriously large fraction is unable to stay in research until retirement. It is the employment policy that is at fault, not the potential of the researchers or the quality of their research.

The Healthy vs the Empty Self

The Healthy vs the Empty Self

Warren Elliot Henry

Warren Elliot Henry

Small Business Loan Turndowns, Personal Wealth and Discrimination

Using newly available data from the Federal Reserve, we examine the impact of personal wealth on small business loan turndowns across demographic groups. Information on home ownership, home equity, and personal net worth excluding the business owner's home, in combination with data on the personal credit history of the principal owner, the business credit history of the firm, a rich set of additional explanatory variables, and information on the competitiveness of local banking markets, contributes to our understanding of the credit market experiences of small businesses across demographic groups. We find substantial unexplained differences in denial rates between African American-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and white-owned firms. We also find that greater personal wealth is associated with a lower probability of loan denial. However, even after controlling for personal wealth, large differences in denial rates across demographic groups remain. Further, consistent with Becker's classic consistent with Becker’s classic theories (1957), we find some evidence that African American-denial rates increase with lender market concentration.

Chocolate and Cognac: Gifts and the Recognition of Social Worlds in Post-Soviet Russia

This paper examines the culture of gift-giving in contemporary urban Russia, illuminating in the process broader post-socialist deliberations about social identity and personal worth. Drawing upon ethnographic research in St. Petersburg (1998-99), I consider how marketization influences, informs, and overlaps with logics of gift-giving and with the social networking practices so central to Soviet-era consumer strategies. In contrast to most previous analyses of such phenomena, this article attends closely to the items of exchange themselves, asking why certain goods are chosen as gifts in particular contexts (such as the chocolate and cognac typically given as tokens of gratitude to doctors, teachers, and others whom one wishes to thank for services well provided). Social theorists have commented on the 'misrecognition' inherent in such gift-giving, in that transactors tend to view these presents not as pragmatic investments but simply - as Russian teachers put it - 'signs of attention' Yet here I push further to consider what it is people are actually recognizing about their shifting social worlds in these activities, as they take stock of one another's claims to cultural and moral value (as well as material wealth) and conceptualize the kind of 'society' in which they are participating.

Chaucer and the Energy of Creation: The Design and the Organization of the 'Canterbury Tales' by Edward I. Condren (review)

YES, 32, 2002 YES, 32, 2002 Petrarchas poets of chaste love is brieflymentioned, there is a great deal more to say about their influence and that of neo-Platonism in the iconography of the virginalmistressin both medieval and Renaissance literature. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to observe, as the editors do in their introduction, that 'depictionsof virginityin the Middle Ages and Renaissance aregendered- or coded -as female', and to examine, as does Kathleen Coyne Kelly in her own essay on Malory's MorteDarthur, the very complex and blurred iconographies that come into play when masculine virtue is at issue. Both here and in the collection as a whole thereis much to stimulatefurtherthought. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON HELEN HACKETT Chaucer andtheEnergy ofCreation. TheDesignandtheOrganization ofthe'Canterbury Tales'. By EDWARDI. CONDREN. Gainesville, Tallahassee, and Tampa: University Press of Florida. I999. viii + 295 PP. $49.95. EdwardCondren'sstudyof the structureof TheCanterbury Tales is sound inprinciple, butproducesconvincing resultsonly in respectof FragmentI. Here he demonstrates a pattern of 'increasing degradation' (p. 25) supported by suggestive evidence of numericalcomposition binding the four tales in a manner much like that brilliantly exploited in SirThopas. This demonstrationis reinforcedby a perceptive discussion ofjustice in the Knight's Talein relation to the personal fortunesand moral worth of Palamon and Arcite (pp. 30-3I), combined with a subtle use of heraldic detail to show that the two are 'not merely similar, but actually identical' (p. 33). But it is hard to see such clarity of structure in The Canterbuy Talesas a whole, and the diagrammatic representations of that structure scattered throughout the book prompt bewilderment more often than ready assent. The effect of a large-scale comparison with Dante's Commedia (in part and in whole) reminds us ratherof the contrastbetween a finishedand an unfinishedworkof art.Virgil'sexposition of love in Purgatorio, XVIIis undoubtedly at the centre of the Commedia, but it is far from evident that the Merchant's Taleis similarlyat the centre of Chaucer's great work. Indeed, there is a lack of proportion, morallyand imaginatively,in the correspondence proposed between January and Dante personaggio. The fact that Dante is a source of poetic inspirationfor Chaucer leads one to question imprecise analogies of this kind, and also to hesitate before describingspecific allusionsto Dante (even in the mouth of the Franklin)as 'floweryexcesses'(p. I56). The main theoretical objection to this study lies in its imputed primacy of teller to tale, and especially to the over-enthusiasticreception of the Donaldsonian view of the Narrator(privilegedby capitalization).Charactersare seen not merely as the instrumentsof Chaucer's art, but as poets in their own right. Thus the Knight has 'crafted' his 'long tale' (p. 50), Arveragus is the creation of a 'Franklincreator' (p. 163)and the 'rioters'of'their Pardoner-creator'(p. I83). Moreover, the notion of a fallible narratoris pressed to extreme lengths. The Merchant intends 'to tell one kind of tale', but 'unwittinglytells another', while the Squire and the Franklin 'are beyond their depth' (p. 125). The Prioress 'fails to comprehend either the horror or the meaning of her own story' (p. 219), and Harry Bailly 'has missed the main point of Melibee' (p. 229). Even the Clerk,thatgreat studentof Aristotle,in his own telling 'perhaps [.. .] does not understand the revisions Chaucer made to Petrarch'sversion' (p. 124).Above all our Narratorhimself is a man of'wide-eyed credulity' (p. 185) and the 'least knowledgeable' (p. I90) of them all. The Canterburypilgrims must rank as the dimmest group ever to set foot on the road from Southwark. Petrarchas poets of chaste love is brieflymentioned, there is a great deal more to say about their influence and that of neo-Platonism in the iconography of the virginalmistressin both medieval and Renaissance literature. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to observe, as the editors do in their introduction, that 'depictionsof virginityin the Middle Ages and Renaissance aregendered- or coded -as female', and to examine, as does Kathleen Coyne Kelly in her own essay on Malory's MorteDarthur, the very complex and blurred iconographies that come into play when masculine virtue is at issue. Both here and in the collection as a whole thereis much to stimulatefurtherthought. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON HELEN HACKETT Chaucer andtheEnergy ofCreation. TheDesignandtheOrganization ofthe'Canterbury...

Association of work status and mental well-being in new mothers.

The present study was to consider the relationship between work status and mental well-being of women at six weeks postpartum. One hundred and eighty-eight employed mothers and 82 unemployed mothers were recruited from the Kaohsiung city area in southern Taiwan to participate in this study. Five instruments were used to collect data: the demographic data form, Cohen's perceived stress scale, Cohen's interpersonal support evaluation list, Coopersmith's self-esteem inventory, and the Beck depression inventory. In results, unemployed mothers were younger, had fewer years of education, and lower socioeconomic status than employed mothers. To adjust for these differences in group characteristics, one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to determine the role of work on mental health factors. Unemployed mothers were found to be at significantly increased risk for depression in terms of prevalence and severity. They also showed significantly greater stress, reduced social support and lowered self-esteem. That employment is mentally beneficial for post-partum women may be due to increased financial resources and provision of additional stress release outlets, social support resources and opportunities for affirmation of personal worth. Since this study is cross-sectional, some reasonable alternative causal explanations for these data were also discussed.

Occupational Therapy and Victim Advocacy

ABSTRACT This article provides an orientation to increase the profession's awareness of occupational therapy's role in victim advocacy, an emerging area of community-based practice. Analysis and comparison of OT's core assumptions and values with general principles of victim advocacy and empowerment demonstrate striking similarities: Each acknowledges holism and a profound connection between the individual and society, as well as their ability to interact and influence each other. In addition, the cultures of OT and victim advocacy both value the dignity and worth of persons, self-determination, freedom and autonomy, latent capacity, human uniqueness and subjectivity, and active and mutual cooperation in restoration or recovery. The compatibility of OT and victim advocacy is further demonstrated in the context of one therapist's work with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Re-Possessing Individualism in Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall

MARIA C. SANCHEZ Re-Possessing Individualism in Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall Be it known that Mrs. Ruth Hall, of —, is entitled to one hundred shares of the Capital Stock of the Seton Bank, and holds the same subject to the conditions and stipulations contained in the Articles of Association of such Institution; which shares are transferable on the Books of the Association by the said Mrs. Ruth Hall or her Attorney, on surrender of this Certificate. You are very fond of poetry and beauty, wherever you see it, —of oratory, sculpture, painting, scenery, flowers, and beautiful sentiments. You must have everything nice; you cannot tolerate anything coarse or gross. The world is hardly finished nice enough for you. . . . The fact is, you are made of finer clay than most of us. Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall 'ear the end of Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall (1854), the eponymous heroine undergoes two defining experiences: she purchases bank stock, and is examined by a phrenologist. Her acquisition of stock, a scene that is accompanied by an illustration of the bank note itself, has been read by critics as that moment which most forcefully emblematizes Ruth Hall's success, her endorsement of possessive individualism, and her restoration to a middle-class status quo.1 However, the often overlooked phrenologist's visit, and his diagnosis of innate refinement, also speak to the class of Fern's most (in)famous creation. Indeed, the "Professor" finds that Ruth possesses "an unusual degree of respect and regard for whatever you value as superior. ... I do not mean conventional superiority or bombastic assumption, but what you really believe to be good and noble," remarking that when it comes to cultural endeavArizona Quarterly Volume 56, Number 4, Winter 2000 Copyright © 2000 by Arizona Board of Regents ISSN 0004-1610 20María C. Sánchez ors, "You [Ruth] will tolerate nothing low" (168, 170). This declaration of Ruth's ability to see through "conventional" signs and detect the truly "noble" or "low" reassures the reader that, for all her trials and tribulations, Ruth Hall's essential identity has never changed. The prevailing theme of the phrenologist's diagnosis is that Ruth is a distinctive woman, in part because she knows how to make distinctions. Although Ruth herself protests that the Professor has provided her with "our $2 worth in flattery," the novel's other voice of truth, Mr. Walter, challenges her modesty: '"There is not a whit of exaggeration in it,' said Mr. Walter. 'The Professor has hit you off to the life'" (171). Thus the novel ends as it begins, by elaborating Ruth Hall's taste, style, distinctions and refinement. Fanny Fern insists, then, that her heroine's class can never be wholly represented by the financial and occupational status indexed by the impressive, and singularly illustrated, bank stock. This essay examines the role that class plays in constructing individualism in Fern's text. I read class here as an index of personal worth that, while fundamentally dependent upon wealth and occupation, is never reducible to them; rather class is understood, both in Fern's novel and in my reading, through the individual markings of taste and style that manifest one's relation to a dominant culture. Few critics of either Ruth Hall or Fanny Fern note the extent to which the novel engages in a consistent construction, indeed, in a constant fashioning of its heroine as a particularly classed subject in the process of furthering its individualist agenda. Yet this fashioning, apparent here in the phrenologist's verdict, indicates that the currently popular theory of possessive individualism is not fully adequate to comprehending the complexities of class in Fern's text. Ruth Hall is of the middle class, but more importantly , she "has class," and it is Fern's construction of this elusive quality that I connect here to individualism—an anti-market individualism. Such an assessment of Ruth Hall's brand of individualistic philosophy goes against the grain of Fanny Fern criticism. Indeed, few nineteenth -century stories of women reward their heroines with money as opposed to conjugal bliss; Fern herself, throughout a long career as a newspaper columnist, tirelessly advocated the necessity of women's financial...

Essay: Rediscovering The Social Determinants Of Health

Essay: Rediscovering The Social Determinants Of Health

Security Abeyance: Coping with the Erosion of Job Conditions and Treatment

The construct of security abeyance is proposed to explain how general insecurity might commonly arise during organizational restructuring. Security abeyance refers to feelings of general insecurity that emerge in work settings where there is an absence of information about the meaning and intention of organizational change. The value of the abeyance construct is explored using a study of change in the air traffic sector. For security abeyance to emerge, unreadable management actions needed to be also accompanied by confusions about the worker's organizational value. In the face of an enduring frustration of meaning, initial, neutral attempts at sensemaking gave way to more proactive efforts to provoke management into clarifying workers' futures. Resolution of the abeyance predicament was found to require workers to let go of attempts to evaluate their current, personal worth to the organization and to extensively re‐evaluate their long‐term relationship with management. However, the emergence of highly distrustful worker constructions of management did not affect other, established organizational attachments. The case for developing security abeyance research is made.

The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising

The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising Richard W. Pollay (bio) Abstract This article reviews the work of significant humanities and social science scholars for their thoughts and theories about advertising’s social and cultural consequences. In brief, they view advertising as instrusive and environmental and its effects as inescapable and profound. They see it as reinforcing materialism, cynicism, irrationality, selfishness, anxiety, social competitiveness, sexual preoccupation, powerlessness, and/or a loss of self-respect. Drawing heavily on original sources, these ideas are synthesized into a framework that structures advertising’s supposed effects and causalities. Also discussed are the problems and prospects for needed research and the moral imperative for this research. Pollay, Richard W. 1986. The distorted mirror: Reflections on the unintended consequences of advertising. Journal of Marketing. 50(April): 18–36. Reprinted with the permission of the American Marketing Association. It is worth recognizing that the advertising man in some respects is as much a brain alterer as is the brain surgeon, but his tools and instruments are different. Advertising Age (1957). While the metaphor of brain surgery may be hyperbole, the inflated rhetoric so characteristic of advertising, it still contains an element of truth. Advertising is without doubt a formative influence within our culture, even though we do not yet know its exact effects. Given its pervasive and persuasive character, it is hard to argue otherwise. The proliferation and the intrusion of various media into the everyday lives of the citizenry make advertising environmental in nature, persistently encountered, and involuntarily experienced by the entire population. It surrounds us no matter where we turn intruding into our communication media, our streets, and our very homes. It is designed to attract attention, to be readily intelligible, to change attitudes, and to command our behavior. Clearly not every advertisement accomplishes all of these aims, but just as clearly, much of it must — otherwise, advertisers are financially extravagant fools. The applied behavioral technologies for consumer behavior and advertising research, like most technologies today, have grown increasingly sophisticated and elaborate. This gives at least the major advertiser a large arsenal of information and the technique with which to finetune a message, aided by an army of experienced professionals running market research surveys, focus groups, copy testing procedures, recall and awareness tests, and test markets. As Marshall McLuhan (1951, p. v) once commented: “Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best trained minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind … to get inside in order to manipulate, exploit, and control.” Even if individual efforts often fail, the indirect effects of the overall system deserve careful consideration. This consideration is all too rarely given to advertising by those most sophisticated in their knowledge of the processes of advertising strategy formation and advertisement creation. These scholars and practitioners, including those of us trained in the more general fields of consumer behavior and marketing, are by tradition focused on the study of advertising’s practical consequence, sales promotion: everything that stimulates the purchase act or the intermediary steps toward that objective. Knowledge of the unintended social consequences of advertising, the social byproducts of the exhortations to “buy products,” is less helpful in professional school teaching or consulting. It is also potentially far more challenging. Advertising’s unintended consequences are seen by many as a pollution of our psychological and social ecology, which raises moral alarm and tempts a defensive reaction from those of us whose expertise and sense of personal worth is drawn from our knowledge of, and at least implicit assistance in, the processes of persuasion. Thus, the concerns of nonbusiness academics and the general public are too often dismissed with a wave of the ideological wand. Commonly we appeal to some alternative value, as in the claim that unregulated advertising is a freedom of speech or essential to the efficient functioning of the economy, hardly perceiving that this is distractive argumentation. Not all scholars assume that mass advertising of the character and scale we now experience is either inevitable or benign. Indeed, those from a wide range of disciplines have given the matter thought, including a surprising number of individuals whose...

Entrepreneurship as a utility maximizing response

Research on entrepreneurship has investigated what entrepreneurs do, what happens when they act as entrepreneurs, and why they act as entrepreneurs. This paper contributes to the latter investigation, and specifically asks why some people choose to be entrepreneurs, while others choose to be employees. Responding to prior literature recognizing the lack of a coherent theory of entrepreneurship and calling for a rigorous examination of the decision to become an entrepreneur, this paper presents an economic model of the career decision. We postulate that the individual chooses an entrepreneurial career path, or a career as an employee, or some combination of the two, according to which career path promises maximal utility (or psychic satisfaction). We assume that the individual's utility from any particular occupation, whether self-employed or employed, depends on income (which depends in turn on ability), as well as working conditions such as decision-making control, risk exposure, work effort required, and other working conditions (net perquisites) associated with that occupation. Individuals will exhibit either preference or aversion towards each of the specified working conditions, and it is the degree of that preference or aversion, in conjunction with the quantum of each working condition, which determines the total utility that the individual will derive from each particular occupation. We show that all employees will have an incentive to be self-employed (if they could assemble the same resources as their employer). Also, the greater their managerial and entrepreneurial ability, the greater will be their incentive to be self-employed, other things being equal. Next, we show that a more positive attitude to work (i.e., a lesser aversion to work effort required) provides a greater incentive to be self-employed. The individual's degree of risk aversion also influences the choice to be an entrepreneur. The more tolerant one is of risk bearing, the greater the incentive to be self-employed. Similarly, the greater the preference for independence, or decision-making control, the greater the incentive to be self-employed. Finally, it is noted that perquisites (and avoidance of irksome elements) can potentially be controlled to a greater degree when self-employed, so the individual will consider the differences in these other working conditions when contemplating a career choice. But it is the sum of the utility and disutility from these sources which determines the career decision. Thus, we demonstrate that positive attitudes toward risk, work, and independence are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for a person to want to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial abilities and attitudes are desirable in employment situations, therefore, an employer may choose to bribe an entrepreneurial individual to be an employee by offering more income and greater independence, for example. We demonstrate that firms recruiting employees, or venture capitalists considering funding an entrepreneur, should in their own best interests investigate the person's attitudes toward income, risk, work, and independence as well as their abilities, as these attitudes underpin the person's worth as an employee and their incentive to be self-employed. Management educators should design programs which enhance the entrepreneurial abilities and attitudes of individuals, and the individuals themselves should consider their `attitudinal' make-up before committing to entrepreneurship.

Spiritual conflicts associated with praying about cancer.

A secondary analysis of data from a study designed to describe how persons use prayer to cope with cancer is presented in this paper to illuminate the spiritual conflicts that can be experienced among persons with cancer. Employing phenomenological methods, 30 persons from various phases of the cancer experience and religious backgrounds, were interviewed in depth about why, when, and how they prayed, as well as what they prayed about and the outcomes they expected. The secondary analysis revealed that many of these informants had hesitancies about petitionary prayers for particular things, a cure, or for themselves. They also indicated questions about theodicy and the meaning of having cancer, the nature of God, and acknowledged 'unanswered' prayer. Several described an inner conflict about releasing control to God. A few referred to bargaining with God, and a few doubted their personal spirituality and worth, if they were praying correctly, and if prayer was efficacious.

Virtue, gender, and the authentic self in eighteenth-century fiction: Richardson, Rousseau, and Laclos

This text analyzes the ways in which female virtue was tied to a new concept of authenticity in 18th-century sentimental fiction, producing a redefinition of gender relations on the one hand and re-examination of the value and place of fictional narrative on the other. As the old values of the aristocracy were being overturned and it was no longer possible simply to equate personal worth with rank or title, a new narrative protagonist was born - someone who was authentic, virtuous and usually female. New questions arose at the same time: what kind of language could represent this authentic self?; how far should the virtuous subject be tested?; and what is the role of the reader in the process?

Economic Reform, Acquisitive Instinct, and Individual Will

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but their self love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. Adam Smith The bourgeoisie has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy waters of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value. In one word, for exploitation, ruled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. Marx The economist has a certain sneaking suspicion that economic man has perfect mental health, having no delusions of grandeur, no Freudian complexes, no heroic attitudinizing, and at least, an Olympian neutrality towards his exchange mates. Superman is only a costume, and Batman a mask; and after all their heroic exploits they will have to go back to economic mama and count their costs, ask their rewards, pay their bills, and face the inexorable consequences of real scarcities, which their heroic antics have actually increased. Boulding

“To See Things as God Sees Them”: Theological Reflections on Pastoral Care to Persons with Dementia

SUMMARY Although theology is often seen as impractical speculation on unimportant matters, it serves as a necessary foundation–and provides valuable guidance–for chaplains who must provide pastoral care to persons with dementia and their families. Theology can help us “to see things as God sees them.” Among the theological doctrines found in the Hebrew-Christian scriptures and traditions that are particularly helpful are the following: human creation “in the image of God”; human nature as a psychophysical unity; the dependence of all persons upon God's mercy; the centrality of community; and God's judgment of personal worth by standards very different from those of “the world.” A model for applying these concepts and some thoughts of the importance of chaplains are offered.

Injection drug users as social actors: A stigmatized community's participation in the syringe exchange programmes of New York City

In 1992, New York State Department of Health regulations provided for fully legal syringe exchange programmes in the state. The policies and procedures mandated that: 'Each program must seek to recruit for inclusion on its advisory board program participants Programs are also urged to establish other advisory bodies, such as Users' Advisory Boards made up of program participants, to provide input and guidance on program policies and operations.' The inclusion of drug users as official advisors to the legal programmes was seen as a method for incorporating the views of the consumers of the service in operational decisions. The 1992 regulations implied a new public image for users of illicit psychoactive drugs: active drug users were seen to be capable not only of self-protective actions (such as avoiding HIV infection), but alsoof serving as competent collaborators in programmes to preserve the public health. This development has important implications with regard to the evolution of official drug policy, since it will be difficult in future to treat IDUs simply as the passive objects of state intervention. Whether as individuals or representatives of a wider population of illicit drug users, they have acquired a legitimacy and sense of personal worth which would have been unthinkable in previous periods.

Dignity and vulnerability: strength and quality of character

In this significant addition to moral theory, George Harris challenges a view of the dignity and worth of persons that goes back through Kant and Christianity to the Stoics. He argues that we do not, in fact, believe this view, which traces any breakdowns of character to failures of strength. When it comes to what we actually value in ourselves and others, he says, we are actually far more Greek than we are Christian. At the most profound level, we value ourselves as natural organisms, as animals, rather than as godlike beings who transcend nature. The Kantian-Christian-Stoic tradition holds that if we are fully able to realize our dignity as Kantians, Christians or Stoics we would be better, stronger people, and therefore less vulnerable to character breakdown. This text offers an opposing view, that sometimes character breaks down not because of some shortcoming in it but because of what is good about it, because of the very virtues and features that give us our dignity. If dignity can make us fragile and vulnerable to breakdown, then breakdown can be benign as well as harmful, and thus the concepts of human dignity embedded in the tradition leading up to Kant are deeply mistaken. Harris proposes a foundation of belief in human dignity in what we can actually know about ourselves, rather than in metaphysical or theological fantasy. Having gained this knowledge, we can understand tha source of real strength.

Vulnerability factors from a pre-and post-myocardial infarction perspective: a qualitative analysis

Summary In- and out-of-hospital rehabilitation programmes have been developed to support patients in the recovery process after MI to engender a sense of security. In spite of these interventions, about one-fifth of the patients report emotional problems. The aim of this study was to uncover factors constituting vulnerability in persons with a history of myocardial infarction. A qualitative research method was used and 12 informants were strategically selected and interviewed. The findings showed that the vulnerability was composed of factors of anxiety, inferiority, insecurity, lack of intimacy, and disconfirmation. Each of the factors encompassed themes of life experiences pre-myocardial infarction as well as themes of expressions post-myocardial infarction. Data showed that the post-myocardial infarction expressions were reflecting the pre-myocardial infarction experiences. The findings were discussed in the light of emotional support and personal worth in order to increase the understanding of the vulnerability factors and their impact on recovery conditions. It was concluded that the person-world relationship was a basis for factors constituting vulnerability along the lifespan which affected the prerequisites for emotional well-being post myocardial infarction. Further research is needed, such as prospective and intervention studies, in order to generate generalizable information.