George D. Bishop

Discussion Effects on Racial Attitudes.

We predicted that discussion would enhance dominant group values, leading to increased polarization between homogeneously composed groups of high-, medium-, and low-prejudice high school subjects. In an experimental condition, group members made individual attitude judgments, discussed them, and remade judgments. Control groups discussed irrelevant materials before responding again to the attitude items. As predicted, discussion of the racial attitude items with others having similar attitudes significantly increased the gap between high- and low-prejudice groups.

Understanding the Understanding of Illness: Lay Disease Representations

As health psychologists one of our primary goals is to understand the determinants of health-related behavior. Topics such as preventive health behavior, help seeking and the use of medical services, and compliance with medical recommendations occupy center stage in health psychology (Leventhal, 1983; Matarazzo, Weiss, Herd, Miller, & Weiss 1984; Stone, Cohen, & Adler, 1979). In each of these areas we seek to understand individuals’ responses to actual or perceived health threats. Further, we are concerned with developing interventions to promote desirable health-related behavior. In this chapter these issues are addressed through examination of cognitive representations of physical illness and the implications of these representations for specific health-related behaviors.

An approach to developing a valid Spanish language translation of a health-status questionnaire.

This article discusses methodological issues confronting health professionals using questionnaires to study health care variables among populations with limited literacy in English, and suggests techniques for minimizing problems that plague questionnaire-based research among these populations. A recent effort to validate a questionnaire for Rheumatoid Arthritis patients in South Texas is used to illustrate pitfalls and potential solutions.

Avian influenza risk perception, Europe and Asia.

During autumn 2005, we conducted 3,436 interviews in European and Asian countries. We found risk perceptions of avian influenza to be at an intermediate level and beliefs of efficacy to be slightly lower. Risk perceptions were higher in Asia than Europe; efficacy beliefs were lower in Europe than Asia.

Reliability and validity of measures of anger/hostility in singapore: Cook & Medley Ho Scale, STAXI and Buss-Durkee hostility inventory

Abstract As part of a larger research programme concerned with the role of anger/hostility in heart disease in Singapore, three commonly used measures of anger/hostility (Cook & Medley Ho Scale, STAXI, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory) were examined for reliability and validity in an Asian population. A total of 968 Singaporean Chinese, Malay and Indian respondents completed one or more of these measures together with measures of symptom and illness experience. In addition, blood pressure and heart rate measures were taken for 201 respondents. Overall, the Ho and STAXI measures had reasonably high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the Buss Durkee measure were high for the total score but variable for the component scales. Correlation and regression showed that the Ho and STAXI appeared to be tapping a common core of variance, which can be characterized as trait anger. Correlations of the Ho and STAXI with health measures produced modest but statistically significant correlations for measures of symptom and illness experience and generally low and non-significant correlations for heart rate and blood pressure.

SARS Risk Perception, Knowledge, Precautions, and Information Sources, the Netherlands

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)–related risk perceptions, knowledge, precautionary actions, and information sources were studied in the Netherlands during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Although respondents were highly aware of the SARS outbreak, the outbreak did not result in unnecessary precautionary actions or fears.

Perceived threat, risk perception, and efficacy beliefs related to SARS and other (emerging) infectious diseases: Results of an international survey

PurposeTo study the levels of perceived threat, perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and eight other diseases in five European and three Asian countries.MethodA computer-assisted phone survey was conducted among 3,436 respondents. The questionnaire focused on perceived threat, vulnerability, severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy related to SARS and eight other diseases.ResultsPerceived threat of SARS in case of an outbreak in the country was higher than that of other diseases. Perceived vulnerability of SARS was at an intermediate level and perceived severity was high compared to other diseases. Perceived threat for SARS varied between countries in Europe and Asia with a higher perceived severity of SARS in Europe and a higher perceived vulnerability in Asia. Response efficacy and self-efficacy for SARS were higher in Asia compared to Europe. In multiple linear regression analyses, country was strongly associated with perceived threat.ConclusionsThe relatively high perceived threat for SARS indicates that it is seen as a public health risk and offers a basis for communication in case of an outbreak. The strong association between perceived threat and country and different regional patterns require further research.

Anger, stress, coping, social support and health: Modelling the relationships

Two studies examined the interrelationships of anger, the experience of stress, perceived social support, and coping strategies along with their relationship to health using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results showed dispositional anger to be composed of two factors, anger experience and anger control. Higher levels of anger experience were related directly to higher levels of stress and lower levels of perceived support resources, indirectly to greater use of avoidance coping, and both directly and indirectly to lower psychological well-being and greater psychological distress. Psychological distress was, in turn, related to poorer physical health. By contrast, higher levels of anger control were associated with a greater tendency to engage in active and reappraisal coping and lower use of avoidance coping. Active and reappraisal coping were, in turn, related to better psychological and physical health whereas the opposite was true for avoidance coping.

Job demands, decisional control, and cardiovascular responses.

The demand-control model for coronary heart disease was tested using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Male patrol officers (N = 118) wore ambulatory blood pressure monitors during 1 of their day shifts with readings taken every 30 min. Following each reading, officers completed a questionnaire using a handheld computer. Significant interactions were obtained between job demands and decisional control for heart rate and pressure rate product such that both variables were highest under conditions of high demand and low control. Main effects were obtained for control such that diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were significantly higher under conditions of low control. These results support the demand-control model and emphasize the importance of psychological control in cardiovascular responses.

Processing Illness Information: The Role of Disease Prototypes

Recently Bishop and Converse (1986) proposed that information about physical symptoms is interpreted by relating those symptoms to preexisting disease prototypes. The two present studies further examined this formulation by testing hypotheses concerning the speed of processing symptom information as well as associations made to sets of physical symptoms as a function of prototypicality. As predicted, Experiment 1 showed that response time to highly prototypical symptom sets was significantly shorter than that for symptom sets containing irrelevant symptoms. Also as predicted, the results of Experiment 2 showed significant differences in the associations made by experiment participants to symptom sets as a function of the prototypicality of the symptoms in those sets. Participants made more category-based associations to highly prototypical symptom sets than to those lower in prototypicality but made more associations to individual symptoms for symptom sets low in prototypicality. Implications for the prot...