Response expectancy versus response hope in predicting birth‐related emotional distress and pain

Abstract

Response expectancies and response hopes have been shown to be two distinct constructs with important implications for nonvolitional outcomes. More specifically, studies show that response expectancies: (1) are sufficient to cause nonvolitional outcomes, (2) are not mediated by other psychological variables, and (3) are self-confirming while seemingly automatic. A new programmatic research line has differentiated between people's response expectancies and their response hopes regarding nonvolitional outcomes and showed that even if response hope and response expectancy are separate constructs, they are not unrelated. These concepts have not yet been studied in pregnant women. Moreover, determining the causal factors that best explain the variance of emotional distress and pain in pregnancy is of great importance. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the interrelations between response expectancy and response hope in pregnant women with respect to (1) emotional distress prior to giving birth and (2) pain during giving birth. Additionally, self-reported labor hours were analyzed as a secondary outcome. Results show that response expectancy for pain directly predicts pain, and that the discrepancy between response hopes and response expectancies is a strong predictor of investigated outcomes. Thus, our results support the idea that preventive psychological interventions for pregnant women should emphasize adjusting response expectancies and response hopes regarding the pain and emotional distress associated with giving birth. We believe that the results have both theoretical and practical implications and the topic deserves further investigation.

The Role of Cognitive Discrepancy Between Perception of National Character and Personality in the Functioning and Adaptation of 46 Countries: An Exploratory Study

“…Discrepancy score. To compute this score, we used similarly already established procedures (Anton & David, 2013;David et al, 2004;Montgomery et al, 2003). To calculate discrepancy scores, we used NEO PI-R and NCS data collected by Terracciano et al (2005).…”

“…Following established procedures (Anton & David, 2013; David, Montgomery, Stan, DiLorenzo, & Erblich, 2004; Montgomery, David, DiLorenzo, & Erblich, 2003), we computed the discrepancy score between projected national character and actual national character, based on the data from Terracciano et al (2005). We also added Romania to the previous dataset, ending with 46 countries in our analysis.…”

Childbirth Distress: A Call for Professional Engagement

“…Among women who give birth, between one third and one half describe their birth experiences as traumatic (Beck, Driscoll, & Watson, 2013). Internationally much has been studied and written about childbirth distress with scholarship arising from and concerning birth experiences in Australia (Beck, 2004), Belgium (Van Bussel, Spitz, & Demyttenaere, 2010), Benin (Fottrell et al, 2010), Canada (Reynolds, 1997), the Gambia (Sawyer et al, 2011), Iran (Taghizadeh, Arbabi, Kazemnejad, Irajpour, & Lopez, 2014), Kenya (Abuya et al, 2015), New Zealand (Berentson-Shaw, Scott, & Jose, 2009), Nigeria (Adewuya, Ologun, & Ibigbami, 2006), Norway (Garthus-Niegel et al, 2014), Romania (Anton & David, 2013), South Africa (Chadwick, 2009), Sweden (Forssén, 2012), the United Kingdom (Ayers & Pickering, 2001), and the United States (Anderson & Gill, 2014; Beck, 2004). 1…”