Health Psychology : a Textbook

Interactive theories It is therefore necessary to understand the process of placebo effects as an active process, which involves ...

Patient expectations Research has also looked at the expectations of the patient. Ross and Olson (1981) examined the effects of ...

Conditioning effects Traditional conditioning theories have also been used to explain placebo effects (Wickra- masekera 1980). I ...

Physiological theories Physiologists have also developed theories to explain placebo effects, with specific focus on pain reduct ...

The cognitive dissonance theory of placebos, however, developed by Totman (1976, 1987), attempted to remove patient expectations ...

acknowledges that changes in symptoms may occur following a placebo drug, but regards these as less important than the real chan ...

Clinical characteristics. Measures were also taken of the clinical severity of the heart attack (congestive heart failure, sev ...

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY Totman (1976, 1987) placed his cognitive dissonance theory of placebos in the following context: ‘Wh ...

behaviour and a state of cognitive dissonance to set this up. Totman’s model is illustrated in Figure 13.2. Evidence for the rol ...

food was offered. The results of this study have been used to suggest that high dissonance influenced the subject’s physiologica ...

The theory does not require patient expectations, but choice. This helps to explain those reported instances where the individ ...

process may only occur if the individual believes that health professionals in white coats can treat illness, that hospitals are ...

lifestyle, then a placebo in the form of a medical intervention may not work, as the doctor’s expectation of failure may be comm ...

TO CONCLUDE Placebos have been shown to have a multitude of effects ranging from pain relief to changing cognitive state. Many t ...

physical well-being. This is in line with health psychology’s aim at challenging traditional dualistic models. However, implicit ...

14 HIV and cancer Psychology throughout the course of illness (1) CHAPTER OVERVIEW The next two chapters (14 and 15) examine the ...

This chapter covers: ➧ What is HIV? The role of psychology in the study of HIV ➧ Attitudes to AIDS ➧ Psychology and susceptibili ...

HIV AND AIDS This section examines the history of HIV, what HIV is and how it is transmitted. It then evaluates the role of psyc ...

found within the immune system and are called T-helper cells. The process of trans- mission of the HIV virus involves the follow ...

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF HIV HIV is transmitted mostly because of people’s behaviour (e.g. sexual intercourse, nee ...