Fatalism: Fatalism is a general
belief that one's life is under the control of fate or other
external forces. People high in fatalism tend to think that
their actions have little impact on their lives, so they may
be less likely to take health precautions. Fatalism measures
include items such as, "I feel that nothing I can do will
make any difference" and "I have left it all to my doctors"
(Osborne,
Elsworth, Kissane, Burke, & Hopper, 1999, p. 1340
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Osborne, R.H., Elsworth, G.R., Kissane, D.W., Burke, S.A.,
& Hopper, J.L. (1999). The mental adjustment to cancer
(MAC) scale: replication and refinement in 632 breast cancer
patients. Psychological Medicine , 29, 1335-1345.
).
Unrealistic Optimism: Unrealistic optimism
(Weinstein,
1982
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Weinstein, N.D. (1982). Unrealistic optimism about susceptibility
to health problems. Journal of Behavioral Medicine,
5, 441-460. ) is the belief that one is less vulnerable
to health problems in general, or to a specific health problem,
than peers. People consistently show this tendency, especially
when they perceive that the problem is controllable or rare
and when they lack experience with the problem. Covey
& Davies (2004)
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Covey, J.A., & Davies, A.D.M. (2004). Are people unrealistically
optimistic? It depends how you ask them. British Journal
of Health Psychology , 9, 39-49. distinguish
between two types of unrealistic optimism measures. The first,
the direct measure, asks respondents to provide a single comparative
risk judgment in which they indicate if the chances that a
negative event will happen to them are below or above the
average for people the same age and gender (e.g., "Compared
to other women your age, what are the chances of you getting
skin cancer?"). The second measure, the indirect measure,
asks respondents to make two absolute judgments: one for themselves
and one for a comparison target (e.g., "How likely is it that
you will get skin cancer?" and "How likely is it that the
average person your age and gender will get skin cancer?";
cf. Perloff
& Fetzer, 1986
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Perloff, L.S. & Fetzer, B.K. (1986). Self-other judgments
and perceived vulnerability to victimization. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(3):502-510.
). |
