Thought Suppression Change in Cancer Patients and Survivors After Writing

<p>Breast cancer is a debilitating and many times fatal disease that will affect approximately 215,990 women in the United States alone this year. Treatment for breast cancer can involve many physically and psychologically straining features. The illness perception theory states that individuals form illness representations to make sense of health threats and illness. These representations contain a number of individual, specific attributes about the illness identity, and cause, time-line, consequences of, and cure/control of the illness. Many women who have experienced breast cancer have also been found to be keeping their thoughts inside. Thought suppression has been linked to many negative consequences, such as anxiety and depression. To investigate, a writing paradigm was introduced to breast cancer patients as survivors. An expected link between expressive writing and a decrease in thought suppression was examined, yet not found to exist. Themes and case examples are provided.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year

2005

Author dc:creator

• Bantum, Erin O'Carroll

Contributors dc:contributor

• Michael Galbraith
• Hector Betancourt
• Mark Haviland

• Neoplasms
• Psychology
• Women's Health
• Breast Neoplasms -- psychology; Women -- psychology; Adaptation, Psychological

Statement dc:rights

• This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/670

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsrepository.llu.edu:etd-1669