Illness behavior and psychosocial correlates of cancer

Marital status, delay in seeking treatment and survival from breast cancer

This study examined 10-year survival following a breast cancer diagnosis among 910 married and 351 widowed white women after adjusting for the effects of age, socio-economic status (SES), stage of disease and delay in seeking treatment for symptoms. All breast cancer patients were treated at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas between 1949 and 1968. Marital status, age, SES, delay and stage were all univariate predictors of survival. Widowed patients were less likely to survive than married patients. Multivariate analyses using a Cox regression technique did not detect an effect of delay on survival when stage and the other variables were included. However, marital status differences in survival remained when all the other variables were included in the model. These data suggest that marital status differences in survival cannot be accounted for by patient delay in seeking treatment for breast cancer symptoms.

Tolerance of aversive stimuli in relation to life change

This study investigated the relation between an individual's tendency to tolerate and/or report discomfort and the amount of life change experienced by that individual. The role of attention in this relation was also examined and manipulated through instruction. Eighty college freshman were selected and divided into three groups (high, medium, low) as a function of scores obtained on the College Schedule of Recent Experience (CSRE). Participants were asked to experience two known discomforting stimuli, the cold pressor and loud broad-band noise. Dependent measures included participant's tolerance time, report of discomfort, and amount of attention paid to each of the stimuli. Results indicated that "high"-life change groups tolerated the two discomforting stimuli significantly less than either the "low"- or the "medium"-life change groups. Neither discomfort ratings nor attention was significantly different across groups. Findings are discussed in relation to epidemiological studies of the life change and illness relation.

The social-psychological precursors to cancer

This article attempts to review the research literature relating the possible psychosocial precursors to cancer. It explores the evidence linking personality predispositions and adverse life events to cancer, providing an indication of where future research should be pursued.