Ransom Sean, Sheldon Kennon M, Jacobsen Paul B
Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2008 Oct;76(5):811-9. doi: 10.1037/a0013270.
People with cancer often report that they experience personal growth as a result of the disease, but such reports have unclear validity. Some suggest such growth results from Rogers's (1951) hypothesized organismic valuing process (OVP), an innate tendency for people to gravitate toward well-being; others suggest this growth may be a positive illusion resulting from temporal self-comparisons. To test these conceptualizations, the authors examined 83 individuals with Stages 0-III breast or prostate cancer. Patients completed measures of positive attributes and personal life goals before radiotherapy (Time 1) and after radiotherapy (Time 2). At Time 2, participants also attempted to recreate their Time 1 responses and completed a posttraumatic growth (PTG) measure. PTG was significantly related with actual increases (but not perceived increases) in the relative importance of intrinsic goals versus extrinsic goals and with perceived increases (but not actual increases) in positive attributes. These measures were unrelated to one another and thus explained unique variance in PTG. Data suggest that both actual change processes related to the OVP and biases in autobiographic recall may independently contribute to PTG reports.
癌症患者常常报告称，他们因患癌而实现了个人成长，但此类报告的有效性并不明确。一些人认为，这种成长源于罗杰斯（1951年）提出的机体评价过程（OVP），即人们趋向幸福的一种内在倾向；另一些人则认为，这种成长可能是时间性自我比较产生的一种积极错觉。为了验证这些概念，作者对83名患有0至III期乳腺癌或前列腺癌的患者进行了研究。患者在放疗前（时间1）和放疗后（时间2）完成了积极特质和个人生活目标的测量。在时间2时，参与者还试图重现他们在时间1时的回答，并完成了创伤后成长（PTG）测量。PTG与内在目标相对于外在目标的相对重要性的实际增加（而非感知到的增加）以及积极特质的感知增加（而非实际增加）显著相关。这些测量彼此不相关，因此解释了PTG中独特的方差。数据表明，与OVP相关的实际变化过程和自传体回忆中的偏差可能独立地促成了PTG报告。
