Goal-relevant dimensions of hypochondriacal tendencies and their relation to symptom manifestation and psychological distress.

Abstract

A national sample of 60 male and 61 female adults completed a telephone interview that included measures of hypochondriacal tendencies, psychological distress, and symptom manifestation. They also provided cognitive evaluations for their most important health goal on scales measuring self-efficacy, value, planning, self-reward, self-criticism, self-monitoring, social comparison, and positive and negative goal-based arousal. Health goal cognition significantly predicted hypochondriacal tendencies measured 15 to 30 days after the goal assessment, even after controlling for chronic illness diagnosis. Correlations between goal cognition and hypochondriacal tendencies differed from those observed for psychological distress, and no significant correlations emerged with symptom manifestation. Results support a motivational account of hypochondriacal tendencies and extend previous goals research.

Goals and Depressive Symptoms: Cross-lagged Effects of Cognitive versus Emotional Goal Appraisals

“…This finding is also consistent with previous-mostly cross-sectional-studies, where goal self-efficacy beliefs (Lecci et al, 1996;Meyer et al, 2004) and more general self-efficacy beliefs (Ormel et al, 1997;Penninx et al, 1998;Saltzman & Holahan, 2002) have been found to account for depressive symptoms. Kavanagh (1992) suggested that efficacy beliefs may affect mood more strongly when they are linked to a domain that is central to self-esteem.…”

“…Unfortunately, the majority of research on goal-related self-efficacy has been cross-sectional, and as such offers little evidence that goal cognitions constitute vulnerability factors rather than simply correlates of depressive symptoms (Doerfler & Aron, 1995;Karoly & Ruehlman, 1995;but cf. Karoly & Ruehlman, 1996;Lecci, Karoly, Briggs, & Kuhn, 1994;Lecci, Karoly, Ruehlman, & Lanyon, 1996;Meyer, Beevers, & Johnson, 2004;Pomaki, Maes, & ter Doest, 2004).…”

Developing a Conceptual Framework of Employee Well-Being (EWB) by Applying Goal Concepts and Findings from Personality-Social Psychology

“…Those who recognized the change and reorganized their goals accordingly expressed significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than those who failed to recognize the change and failed to adapt their goals (cf. Affleck et al 1998;Karoly, 1999;Karoly & Ruehlman, 1995Lecci et al 1996).…”

Altered processing of health threat words as a function of hypochondriacal tendencies and experimentally manipulated control beliefs

“…Participants were asked to indicate if they had ever been diagnosed by a doctor as having any one of eleven common chronic illness categories, such as cancer, heart disease, and ''other'' (see Lecci, Karoly, Ruehlman, & Lanyon, 1996). The importance of emphasising a doctor's diagnosis is that confounds with hypochondriasis are minimised, as hypochondriacs might be more prone to think that they have a diagnosis.…”