Positive Disclosure Research Articles

Emotional disclosure in home hospice cancer care: Implications for spouse caregiver bereavement.

54 Background: Evidence shows the benefit of positive and negative emotional disclosure for family caregivers (CG), but little is known about the impact of emotional disclosure at end of life. We assessed the effect of CG and hospice nurse disclosure during home visits on CG anxiety and depression in bereavement. Methods: As part of a larger study, nurse visits to 95 spouse CGs of cancer home hospice patients were audio recorded. An adapted Roter Interaction Analysis System was used to identify emotional disclosure: CG and nurse positive emotion (humor, gratitude), CG distress, and nurse emotional response (reassurance, validation). CGs completed demographics at hospice enrollment, and HADS anxiety scale, and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) at enrollment, and 2, 6 and 12 months after patient death. Growth curve analysis was conducted to predict HADS and GDS trajectories, controlling for CG gender, total talk, anxiety and depression at enrollment. Results: Average spouse CG age was 65; 60% were female and 98% were white. There were no GDS effects for CG expression of distress or nurse emotional response. Higher CG positive emotion talk predicted higher GDS at 2 months (B = .18, p < .01), but a significant decline of GDS over time (B = -.08, p = .03). There were no effects for CG emotional disclosure on anxiety. However, more nurse emotional response predicted lower anxiety at 2 months (B = -.10, p = .02) which did not significantly change over time. More nurse positive emotion did not impact anxiety at 2 months, but predicted lower anxiety over time (B = -.04, p = .04). Conclusions: Emotional disclosure during cancer hospice visits was associated with spouse CG bereavement trajectories. CG positive emotion talk may signal increased potential for depression early in bereavement, but appears to lessen over time. CGs who express more positive emotion, which includes humor, gratitude and savoring the moment, may be more sensitive to loss, but appear to recover in time. Nurse expression of reassurance and validation, and of positive emotions seems to be effective in addressing and normalizing CG anxiety during bereavement. These findings have potential implications for communication interventions.

I Did Well. Should I Tell? Gender Differences in Children’s Academic Success Disclosures

There is growing evidence that individuals frequently share good news with others and that these positive event disclosures can predict positive affective outcomes. In the current study, we tested hypotheses regarding gender differences in one type of positive event disclosure: children’s willingness to disclose academic successes to friends. Participants were 524 children living in the Midwestern United States. The sample was divided into two age groups: middle childhood and early adolescence. Consistent with hypotheses, girls were more likely than boys to disclose academic successes to friends. Also consistent with hypotheses, this gender difference was mediated by gender differences in perceived norms and perceived responses. Specifically, girls’ greater willingness to disclose academic successes to friends was partially explained by girls’ greater sense that academic success disclosures are normative and – especially among early adolescents – by girls’ greater sense that academic success disclosures will be met with supportive responses. Contrary to predictions, this gender difference was not mediated by prosocial goals. Although these findings may run contrary to the notion that girls are more likely than boys to adopt a modest self-presentation style, they are consistent with evidence that girls’ friendships are more likely than boys’ to be characterized by features (e.g., validation) that would facilitate positive event disclosures and with evidence that boys are more likely than girls to demonstrate a devaluing of academic achievement and effort. Future research will be important in better understanding how parent, teacher, and peer socialization processes interact to contribute to children’s decision-making regarding academic success disclosures.

Disclosure of Fertility-Related Negative Emotions: Supports Utilized and Relationships to Resilience, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Infertility-Specific Distress in Women Seeking Medical Interventions

Context: For many chronic medical conditions, social support yields positive outcomes. However, in cases of infertility, interactions have the potential to be experienced as painful and increase the likelihood of interpersonal withdrawal. Objective: To study the extent fertility-treatment seeking women disclose negative fertility-related emotions, particular relationships utilized, and the relationship between disclosure and well-being. Design: Participants completed a questionnaire following enrollment in fertility clinics. Setting: Fertility specialty clinics. Patient(s): Women presenting for medical assessment and treatment of infertility (n=42). Intervention(s): Female clinic attendees were asked to participate. Main outcome measure(s): Depression, general stress, and fertility-related distress were evaluated with established measures. An evaluation of fertility-related social support utilization was developed for this research. Result(s): Relationships between positive well-being, pathology, and disclosure of negative emotions were noted, yet varied markedly by the specific social supports utilized. Withholding of negative emotions was associated with adverse psychological health for some variables assessed. Disclosure to other individuals with fertility concerns (i.e., spouse/partner, infertile peer) was high, but only associated with lowered relationship concerns and greater spiritual resilience with spouses/partners. Utilization of certain supports did not evidence any associations with mental health and, very rarely, utilization of specific supports was associated with adverse functioning. Conclusion(s): Similarities and salient differences were noted between this study and other research evaluating perceived social support or disclosure of infertility generically defined. Engagement with particular social resources and disclosure of the emotional context of infertility may be markedly beneficial for reducing stress and improving well-being and warrant further longitudinal study.

Consumers as Corporate Stakeholders: The Case for Consumer-Oriented Corporate Governance, Accountability and Disclosure

It is legally impossible to offer securities to the public without giving thorough and exhaustive disclosures, allowing potential buyers to compare such securities with competing investment options. But it is legally possible to offer the public any other product under the wide wings of the freedom of commercial speech. Corporations offering merchandise or services to the public, in 2014, enjoy the status of small merchants in the archaic marketplace: they need to provide consumers with information only to the extent where lack thereof would render the agreement involuntary, as required under contract law. Consumers of securities, on the other hand, are labeled and are considered prominent corporate stakeholders. Offering securities to the public entails an informational regime that includes periodic and immediate uniform disclosures including all material information in plain English, accompanied by standardized financial audit and report. This paper calls for corporate informational accountability towards consumers, by setting positive disclosure standards on corporations offering products or services to the public. The paper compares product choice to investment allocation, arguing that the choice process, product complexity, and risks are often higher for consumers than for investors. The consumer product market is compared to capital markets, showing that for investors, analysis of information is frequently performed by investment advisors and other intermediaries, whereas consumers typically make their product research and choice unaided. The paper shows that due to the costs of information and the structural characteristic of the consumer products market, intermediaries are unlikely to solve market failure for consumers. Despite the abundance of commercial speech, markets fail to provide consumers with the requisite information for efficient choice, and overwhelm consumers with an overload of information. Securities Exchange Commission v. H. J. Howey Co. and United Housing Foundation Inc. v. Forman create a legal distortion, because it is not the purpose of purchase we need to protect, but rather the unilateral relationship and one-sided control of all relevant information, which equally apply to consumers and investors alike. Doctrinal foundations are discussed, arguing that consumers should be as well protected as investors in terms of informational rights. Corporate law is established as the doctrinal setting for product disclosures, offering an extension of the scope of current corporate governance and applying stakeholder theory to consumers as corporate members. The suggested corporate law accountability is compared to accountability under contracts law, arguing to the merit of the former. Three essentials for corporate disclosure accountability towards consumers are suggested, including a duty of materiality, accessibility, and succinct disclosures.

Women's views and experiences of antenatal enquiry for domestic abuse during pregnancy.

The aim of this study was to explore the acceptability of antenatal enquiry for domestic abuse from the perspective of women using maternity services. It also sought to understand the experiences of referral and support offered to women who had positively disclosed abuse. A multimethod approach was adopted including quantitative and qualitative elements. The survey assessed women's views of the acceptability and impact of routine enquiry for domestic abuse. Interviews aimed, to understand the views and experiences of women who had positively disclosed abuse during their contact with maternity services. 94.4% of those surveyed felt comfortable with a midwife asking about abuse. 96.6% of the participants also believed it was appropriate for a midwife to ask and that midwives should be able to respond to positive disclosure. Interviewees subject to abuse during pregnancy were happy to be questioned, even though they did not always feel able to disclose immediately. Women had a positive view of antenatal enquiry for domestic abuse in healthcare settings and support its continuation. Women expect to be asked and that midwives can respond appropriately. Raising the issue creates a culture in which women are made aware of the impact of abuse and understand there are avenues of support even if she decides not to leave the relationship. Women may choose not to disclose about the abuse at the initial time of asking, for fear of their own safety but asking signifies that she can disclose about at a later contact.

Gay men in the police: identity disclosure and management issues

Updating the paucity of UK research on lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) sexualities in the police, this study examines the identity disclosure and management practices of 20 gay police officers. Drawing on in‐depth interview data, our key finding is that gay police officers generally do not expect to be stigmatised but anticipate and experience positive disclosure experiences. Overall, the research reveals that gay officers actively seek to construct disclosure opportunities and adopt strategies of identity integration. Significantly, gay police identities can be managed openly and valued as organisational assets. Gendered organisational norms are influential here, shaping how and to whom participants disclose and manage their gay identities. Of concern then is that some police work environments continue to reinforce traditional notions of masculinity, potentially discrediting and limiting the integration of gay officers. This represents important knowledge for those HRM practitioners who advise and support LGB police personnel.

HIV disclosure patterns, predictors, and psychosocial correlates among HIV positive women in Zimbabwe

Disclosure of positive HIV status in Sub-Saharan Africa has been associated with safer sexual practices and better antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, but associations with psychosocial function are unclear. We examined patterns and psychosocial correlates of disclosure in a Zimbabwean community. Two hundred HIV positive women at different stages of initiating ART participated in a cross-sectional study examining actual disclosures, disclosure beliefs, perceived stigma, self-esteem, depression, and quality of life. Ninety-seven percent of the women disclosed to at least one person, 78% disclosed to their current husband/partner, with an average disclosure of four persons per woman. The majority (85–98%) of disclosures occurred in a positive manner and 72–95% of the individuals reacted positively. Factors significantly correlated with HIV disclosure to partners included being married, later age at menses, longer duration of HIV since diagnosis, being on ART, being more symptomatic at baseline, ever having used condoms, and greater number of partners in the last year. In multivariate analysis, being married and age at menses predicted disclosure to partners. Positive disclosure beliefs, but not the total number of disclosures, significantly correlated with lower perceived stigma (ρ = 0.44 for personalized subscale and ρ = 0.51 for public subscale, both p<0.0001), higher self-esteem (ρ = 0.15, p=0.04), and fewer depressive symptoms (ρ = –0.14, p=0.05). In conclusion, disclosure of positive HIV status among Zimbabwean women is common and is frequently met with positive reactions. Moreover, positive disclosure beliefs correlate significantly with psychosocial measures, including lower perceived stigma, higher self-esteem, and lower depression.

Emotional and Interpersonal Consequences of Self-Disclosure in a Lived, Online Interaction

Self-disclosure is a powerful precipitant and enhancer of interpersonal relationships, but its contingents and mechanisms are still poorly understood. To address this gap, we examined the emotional and interpersonal consequences of self-disclosure online with a particular focus on the real dynamic nature of the interaction. In two large-scale experiments, 234 dyads of undergraduates participated in an online chat. The dyads' self-disclosure (positive vs. negative vs. no self-disclosure), anonymity (present vs. absent), and role (initiator vs. exposed) were manipulated. Participants' personality factors (self-criticism, experiential avoidance, openness to experience) were assessed prior to the interaction. Positive and negative affect were assessed prior and subsequent to the interaction, and willingness to interact again was measured as an outcome interaction. Positive disclosure resulted in an increase in positive affect and negative disclosure resulted in an increase in negative affect for both initiato...

Non-Financial Performance Indicators (R&amp;D) Impact on Individual Investors’ Decision Making

Special committee of the AICPA on financial reports has urged disclosure of related non-financial performance measurers and forward-looking information to addition customary financial reports (AICPA, 2002). This study shows an experiment that examines whether additional disclosure of non-financial performance measurement (R&D) impact on individual Investors’ net earnings estimates. An experiment was directed applying investors who were prepared with a hypothetical firm’s annual report. The experiment presented to include two levels (additional disclosure positive non-financial performance (R&D), negative non-financial performance (R&D) 1 (financial statements only as control group) between-subjects design. The individual investors with high education and knowledge reacted to the negative and positive information, as anticipated from the prior research. The results show that the value of positive additional disclosure of non-financial performance (R&D) may not overflow in an equal manner to all users of financial statements. It also indicates that regulatory intervention to additional disclosure to all investors may not have the desired effect if cognitive biases, and lack of task-specific knowledge, adversely affect their decision-making.I provided in advance proof on disclosures that can help individual investors. When my experiment sets convergent proof of the impact of these disclosures in a controlled setting, in addition, it prepares fresh proof that the differences in investors’ appraisals are probably involuntary, caused by reminder bound. This study found that additional disclosures non-financial performance (R&D) improve individual investors decision making, although these disclosures are superfluous with data in the initial financial reports.

Detecting Intimate Partner Violence: More Than Trauma Team Education Is Needed

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an underappreciated cause of morbidity and mortality in female trauma patients. We investigated the impact of a domestic violence education program for trauma residents on the detection of IPV. In January 2008, an educational IPV program was implemented for all trauma residents. A retrospective review of all female patients evaluated by the trauma service before and after institution of the IPV program was performed. Medical records were reviewed for demographic data, injury mechanism, social habits, and IPV documentation. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare patients before and after institution of the educational IPV program. The records of 645 female trauma patients evaluated in 2007 and 2008 were reviewed. Patients were not routinely asked about IPV, despite implementation of the educational program; 39.9% were asked about IPV in 2007 versus 46.1% in 2008 (p = 0.11). The positive disclosure of IPV did not increase from 2007 to 2008 (20.1% versus 21.2%; p = 0.83). Documentation about social habits increased considerably. In 2008, patients were asked more regularly about alcohol (71.8% versus 80.8%; p = 0.01), drugs (64.1% versus 73.7%; p = 0.01), and tobacco use (67.0% versus 78.1%; p = 0.002). Importantly, patients with documented IPV (n = 57) frequently presented to the trauma team with nonviolent mechanisms of injury (n = 30, 52.6%). IPV is a frequent finding in female trauma patients. Despite increased education, questions about IPV are not documented routinely. In addition, screening at-risk patients by mechanism will underestimate the prevalence of IPV. Universal screening should be mandated to increase IPV detection and enhance opportunities for intervention.

Positive disclosure among college students: What do they talk about, to whom, and why?

There is an expanding literature on the psychological and relationship effects of positive disclosure, whereby people who disclose about good things that happen to them benefit from this disclosure. Extending this research, we focused on what people identify as positive information about themselves and why they disclose this content to others. College students (190 men and 219 women) described what they considered to be a positive experience, feeling, or private aspect of themselves and whether or not they had disclosed this information to close others (mother, father, same-sex friend, and dating/intimate partner). They also described their reasons for disclosing and/or not disclosing to these relationship targets. Based on participants’ open-ended responses, we constructed taxonomies of positive information about the self and the reasons for and against disclosing this content. The research documents how different relationship contexts affect the disclosure of positive information and the reasons for these disclosure decisions.

Intimate Partner Violence and the Trauma Team: More than Education Is Needed

Objective: To investigate the impact of an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) education program on the detection of IPV in the trauma population. Methods: In January 2008, an IPV educational program consisting of a 1 hr conference on domestic violence with a pre and post test was mandated for all residents rotating at our level 1 trauma center. A retrospective review of all female pts (>18 yrs old) evaluated by the trauma service before and after the institution of the IPV program (3/1-8/31/07 and 3/1-8/31/08) was performed. Medical records were reviewed for documentation regarding IPV, social habits, demographic data, and mechanism of injury. Pre IPV program pts (n=348) were compared to Post IPV program pts (n=299) using the chi-square test with significance of p< 0.05. Results: Despite the institution of an IPV program, female pts were not routinely asked about IPV (60.1% vs 53.9%, p=0.11) and the positive disclosure of IPV did not increase post IPV program (21.1% vs 20.1%). Documentation regarding tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, however, increased significantly post program implementation. Pts with a documented history of IPV frequently presented with non-violent mechanisms including motor vehicle crashes (27.3%) and falls (22.7%).

Designing for positive disclosure: What do you like today?

This paper's premise is that technology has the potential to support the elicitation, expression and communication of positive thoughts. However, its success depends on understanding and incorporating appropriate strategies for interactive system design and development. Following in the positive psychology tradition, this paper presents two co-design studies investigating how positive thoughts can be mediated and shared. These studies involved approximately 50 participants, using paper-based questioning techniques and social–online tools that captured 151 contributions on what thoughts people like to share. The collected data demonstrated the potential for designing systems based on a prefix-based elicitation of positive emotions. Analysis of participants' contributions suggests that various messages of a predominantly positive nature can be harnessed, emphasising the importance of immediacy and situatedness in expression. Moreover, the analysis resulted in a set of design considerations for the design and development of positive expressive technologies. These considerations were used to develop a mobile application called PosiPost Me (Mobile Internet Edition) that allows users to create and share positive thoughts at any time and place. In this way, this research sets an exemplar of a design process for positive communicative systems while building on research in positive psychology, human–computer interaction and cognitive ergonomics. Relevance to industry The studies conducted showed the feasibility of proposed approach and opens new avenues for technologies aimed at positive communication and wellbeing in the mobile environment. It also offers a set of design considerations to support designers in creating such positive expressive technologies.

Choosing Your Words Carefully

A gap exists between patients' desire to be told about medical errors and present practice. Little is known about how physicians approach disclosure. The objective of the present study was to describe how physicians disclose errors to patients. Mailed survey of 2637 medical and surgical physicians in the United States (Missouri and Washington) and Canada (national sample). Participants received 1 of 4 scenarios depicting serious errors that varied by specialty (medical and surgical scenarios) and by how obvious the error would be to the patient if not disclosed (more apparent vs less apparent). Five questions measured what respondents would disclose using scripted statements. Wide variation existed regarding what information respondents would disclose. Of the respondents, 56% chose statements that mentioned the adverse event but not the error, while 42% would explicitly state that an error occurred. Some physicians disclosed little information: 19% would not volunteer any information about the error's cause, and 63% would not provide specific information about preventing future errors. Disclosure was affected by the nature of the error and physician specialty. Of the respondents, 51% who received the more apparent errors explicitly mentioned the error, compared with 32% who received the less apparent errors (P<.001); 58% of medical specialists explicitly mentioned the error, compared with 19% of surgical specialists (P<.001). Respondents disclosed more information if they had positive disclosure attitudes, felt responsible for the error, had prior positive disclosure experiences, and were Canadian. Physicians vary widely in how they would disclose errors to patients. Disclosure standards and training are necessary to meet public expectations and promote professional responsibility following errors.

The Effect of Social Presence on the Facial and Verbal Expression of Emotion and the Interrelationships Among Emotion Components

Women were videotaped while they spoke about a positive and a negative experience either in the presence of an experimenter or alone. They gave self-reports of their emotional experience, and the videotapes were rated for facial and verbal expression of emotion. Participants spoke less about their emotions when the experimenter (E) was present. When E was present, during positive disclosures they smiled more, but in negative disclosures they showed less negative and more positive expression. Facial behavior was only related to experienced emotion during positive disclosure when alone. Verbal behavior was related to experienced emotion for positive and negative disclosures when alone. These results show that verbal and nonverbal behaviors, and their relationship with emotional experience, depend on the type of emotion, the nature of the emotional event, and the social context.

An Experimental Market's Investigation of Discretionary Financial Disclosure

The extent to which market forces can induce full financial disclosure by managers has long been an issue of interest to regulators. Investigating this phenomenon with naturally occurring data produces a major obstacle: since managers' private information sets are unknown, it is necessary to make assumptions about them in order to interpret the nature (e.g., favourable or unfavourable, income increasing or income decreasing) of the information that is disclosed. The validity of the inferences relies critically on the validity of these assumptions.The present study uses a laboratory experiment to test three hypotheses derived from prior analytical and empirical research: (H1) When disclosure costs are zero, managers voluntarily disclose all (good and bad) news; (H2) When disclosure costs are positive. managers only disclose news which exceeds some threshold: and (H3) The mandatory disclosure of non‐proprietary information induces an increase in the disclosure of correlated. proprietary information.One hundred and fifty‐six subjects participated in markets with one firm manager and three investors. Over thirteen independent periods, the managers decided whether to truthfully disclose the liquidation value of the asset under their stewardship, and the investors submitted competing bids for the asset. With costless disclosure. investors price‐protected themselves when managers withheld information, but the price penalty that they imposed was insufficient to induce full disclosure. With positive disclosure cost, investors reduced the price penalty that they imposed for non‐disclosure, and managers disclosed proportionally fewer of the less extreme good news. Finally, mandatory disclosure of information had no significant impact on the voluntary disclosure of correlated proprietary information.Discussion centres on our failure to support the (equilibrium) prediction from analytical research that full disclosure should obtain when disclosures are costless. Several limitations of the study are examined. and it remains an open question whether additional trials (periods) in the present study might have provided full disclosure.

Assessing the Impact of Magic Johnson's HIV Positive Announcement on a University Campus

Was Magic Johnson's public HIV positive disclosure correlated with changes in AIDS-related attitudes and behaviors of individuals on a college campus? Students surveyed within two weeks of Johnson'...

Variables Affecting the Perception of Self-Disclosure Appropriateness

Summary The perception of appropriate self-disclosure was examined as a function of sex of the interactants, intimacy, and valence of self-disclosure. Dependent variables investigated in addition to perceived appropriateness were perceived friendliness, maturity, warmth, psychological adjustment, openness, emotional stability, and sensitivity of the discloser; and mutual liking of, and desire for future contact with, the discloser. Normative evaluations of male or female confederate disclosure where intimacy level and valence had been experimentally manipulated, were provided by 64 male and 64 female volunteer undergraduate Ss, who were randomly assigned to the 16 cells of a 2(sex of discloser/confederate) × 2(sex of recipient/subject) × 2(intimacy) × 2(valence) factorial design. Interpersonal evaluations of the discloser occurred in the context of a structured acquaintance session. Female recipients were more receptive to disclosure thus viewing it as appropriate. Positive disclosure in contrast to negat...