Information and Its Outcomes Interplay of Negative Emotion and Health Self-Efficacy on the Use of Health

During the course of illness, people diagnosed with cancer need information to cope with cancer. Despite the crucial role of information, little is known about why some people with cancer choose to seek further information about their illness and why others do not. This study investigates the interplay of two psychological factors, negative emotion and health self-efficacy, on patients' health information use. Using the data collected from 122 women diagnosed with breast cancer, the authors found that negative emotions and health self-efficacy jointly affect the use of health information. Among patients with high health self-efficacy, negative emotions were positively related to the amount of information sought, whereas among those with low health self-efficacy, negative emotions were negatively related to the amount of information sought. The results also show that there are significant increases in patients' health self-efficacy after the use of health information for 2 months.

[1]  J. Sloan,et al.  Decision making during serious illness: what role do patients really want to play? , 1992, Journal of clinical epidemiology.

[2]  Daniel W. Russell,et al.  Type of social support and specific stress: Toward a theory of optimal matching. , 1990 .

[3]  N. Frijda,et al.  Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotional action readiness , 1989 .

[4]  M. Minkler,et al.  Social support and health. , 1982, Patient education newsletter.

[5]  S. Haas,et al.  Communication in the management of uncertainty: The case of persons living with HIV or AIDS , 2000 .

[6]  P. Reeves.  Coping in Cyberspace: The Impact of Internet Use on the Ability of HIV-Positive Individuals to Deal with Their Illness , 2000, Journal of health communication.

[7]  I. Janis,et al.  Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice, and Commitment , 1977 .

[8]  A. Babrow,et al.  Uncertainty, Value, Communication, and Problematic Integration , 2001 .

[9]  K. McPherson,et al.  Cancer patients' information needs and information seeking behaviour: in depth interview study , 2000, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[10]  T. Wills,et al.  Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. , 1985, Psychological bulletin.

[11]  Richard L. Street,et al.  Communication in medical consultations: A review essay , 1990 .

[12]  E. Maibach,et al.  Self-efficacy in health promotion research and practice: conceptualization and measurement , 1995 .

[13]  S Roth,et al.  Approach, avoidance, and coping with stress. , 1986, The American psychologist.

[14]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[15]  Rajiv N. Rimal,et al.  The Role of Anxiety in Seeking and Retaining Risk Information: Testing the Risk Perception Attitude Framework in Two Studies , 2006 .

[16]  S Galloway,et al.  Informational needs of women with a recent diagnosis of breast cancer: development and initial testing of a tool. , 1997, Journal of advanced nursing.

[17]  Wylie Burke,et al.  Predicting breast cancer screening intentions and behavior with emotion and cognition. , 2003 .

[18]  A. Neugut,et al.  Fear, anxiety, worry, and breast cancer screening behavior: a critical review. , 2004, Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology.

[19]  D. Cella,et al.  Cancer support groups: the state of the art. , 1993, Cancer practice.

[20]  S. Ziebland,et al.  How the internet affects patients' experience of cancer: a qualitative study , 2004, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[21]  P. Ekman,et al.  Approach-withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry: emotional expression and brain physiology. I. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  M. Allen,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals: Implications for Effective Public Health Campaigns , 2000, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[23]  R. J. Cline,et al.  Consumer health information seeking on the Internet: the state of the art. , 2001, Health education research.

[24]  B. van der Molen.  Relating information needs to the cancer experience: 1. Information as a key coping strategy. , 1999, European journal of cancer care.

[25]  James Price Dillard,et al.  Persuasion and the Structure of Affect: Dual Systems and Discrete Emotions as Complementary Models. , 2001 .

[26]  R. Rimal.  Perceived Risk and Self-Efficacy as Motivators: Understanding Individuals' Long-Term Use of Health Information. , 2001 .

[27]  Suzanne L. Allard,et al.  Avoiding versus seeking: the relationship of information seeking to avoidance, blunting, coping, dissonance, and related concepts. , 2005, Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA.

[28]  K. Witte.  Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model , 1992 .

[29]  A. Bandura.  Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy.

[30]  Paul Skalski,et al.  Comparing Survey and Diary Measures of Internet and Traditional Media Use , 2005 .

[31]  A. Bandura,et al.  Social Cognitive Theory of Organizational Management , 1989 .

[32]  G. Eysenbach.  The Impact of the Internet on Cancer Outcomes , 2003, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians.

[33]  Irwin G. Sarason,et al.  General and Specific Perceptions of Social Support , 1994 .

[34]  H. Kelley,et al.  Communication and Persuasion: Psychological Studies of Opinion Change , 1982 .

[35]  Suzanne Pingree,et al.  Effects of Insightful Disclosure Within Computer Mediated Support Groups on Women With Breast Cancer , 2006, Health communication.

[36]  Ira J. Roseman,et al.  Phenomenology , Behaviors , and Goals Differentiate Discrete Emotions , 2004 .

[37]  Toni Schmader,et al.  The Approach and Avoidance Function of Guilt and Shame Emotions: Comparing Reactions to Self-Caused and Other-Caused Wrongdoing , 2006 .

[38]  Bret R. Shaw,et al.  Experiences of Women with Breast Cancer: Exchanging Social Support over the CHESS Computer Network , 2000, Journal of health communication.

[39]  Vic Barnett,et al.  Outliers in Statistical Data , 1980 .

[40]  R. Ross,et al.  Psychological response to mastectomy. A prospective comparison study , 1987, Cancer.

[41]  M. Parle,et al.  Appraisal and psychological distress six months after diagnosis of breast cancer. , 2002, British journal of health psychology.

[42]  J. Stainer,et al.  The Emotions , 1922, Nature.

[43]  Shizuhiko Nishisato,et al.  Elements of Dual Scaling: An Introduction To Practical Data Analysis , 1993 .

[44]  A. Baum,et al.  Health psychology: mapping biobehavioral contributions to health and illness. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[45]  H. Krohne,et al.  The concept of coping modes: relating cognitive person variables to actual coping behavior , 1989 .

[46]  E. D. Ferguson,et al.  Motivation: A Biosocial and Cognitive Integration of Motivation and Emotion , 2000 .

[47]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[48]  T. Mayne,et al.  Negative Affect and Health: The Importance of Being Earnest , 1999 .

[49]  R Schwarzer,et al.  Social-cognitive predictors of health behavior: action self-efficacy and coping self-efficacy. , 2000, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[50]  A. Babrow,et al.  To Hope or to Know: Coping with Uncertainty and Ambivalence in Women's Magazine Breast Cancer Articles , 2007 .

[51]  Christopher K. Hsee,et al.  Risk as Feelings , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[52]  J. Brehm.  The Intensity of Emotion , 1999, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[53]  P. Thoits.  Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical problems in studying social support as a buffer against life stress. , 1982, Journal of health and social behavior.

[54]  J. V. Wood,et al.  Attributions, beliefs about control, and adjustment to breast cancer. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[55]  N. Weinberg,et al.  Online help: cancer patients participate in a computer-mediated support group. , 1996, Health & social work.

[56]  J. Gray,et al.  Brain systems that mediate both emotion and cognition. , 1990 .

[57]  A. Bandura,et al.  Self-evaluative and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivational effects of goal systems. , 1983 .

[58]  A. Neugut,et al.  The contribution of emotional characteristics to breast cancer screening among women from six ethnic groups. , 2004, Preventive medicine.

[59]  R. Rimal,et al.  Perceived risk and efficacy beliefs as motivators of change: Use of the risk perception attitude (RPA) framework to understand health behaviors , 2003 .

[60]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. , 1977, Psychological review.

[61]  D. Cicchetti.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1993 .

[62]  J. House,et al.  Social relationships and health. , 1988, Science.

[63]  E. Harmon-Jones,et al.  State anger and prefrontal brain activity: evidence that insult-related relative left-prefrontal activation is associated with experienced anger and aggression. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[64]  D. Gustafson,et al.  Effect of computer support on younger women with breast cancer , 2001, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[65]  Sheldon Cohen.  Social relationships and health. , 2004, The American psychologist.

[66]  P. Lang.  The emotion probe. Studies of motivation and attention. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[67]  Wolfgang Stroebe,et al.  The social psychology of social support. , 1996 .

[68]  Ian H. Gotlib,et al.  Stress and Mental Health: Contemporary Issues and Prospects for the Future. , 1995 .

[69]  Robin L. Nabi.  Reasoning through emotion: An explication and test of a cognitive-functional model for the effects of discrete negative emotions on information processing, attitude change, and recall , 1999 .

[70]  C. Carver,et al.  Negative affects deriving from the behavioral approach system. , 2004, Emotion.

[71]  Hilary Jefferies,et al.  Ovarian cancer patients: are their informational and emotional needs being met? , 2002, Journal of clinical nursing.

[72]  D. Gustafson,et al.  Impact of a patient-centered, computer-based health information/support system. , 1999, American journal of preventive medicine.

[73]  Van Der Molem.  Relating information needs to the cancer experience: 1. Information as a key coping strategy. , 1999 .

[74]  J. House,et al.  Structures and Processes of Social Support , 1988 .

[75]  M. Sherif,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1946, Psychological review.

[76]  Ira J. Roseman.  Cognitive determinants of emotion: A structural theory. , 1984 .

[77]  S. Vernon,et al.  Participation in breast screening programs: a review. , 1990, Social science & medicine.