Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Leuven, Belgium.
Clin Psychol Rev. 2011 Apr;31(3):428-39. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2010.11.002. Epub 2010 Nov 12.
Several models have been proposed to conceptualize psychological representations of health, illness, and bodily sensations. These models differ as to the cognitive and affective components they include, whether they study the interaction of these components, and whether associations between psychological representations of bodily states and affective and behavioral reactions to these representations are considered conditional. These different conceptualizations and corresponding measurement approaches exist in parallel without resulting in synergistic effects or theoretical advancements within the field. In this paper, we review theoretical models on perception and attitudes and construct an integrative theoretical framework on psychological representation of bodily symptoms as well as more abstract representations of health and disease. The aim of this combination of approaches is to unify the strengths of different research domains in the conceptualization and measurement of mental representations of bodily states. Furthermore, the aim is to specify new, testable predictions and implications about the (conditional) relationship of these mental representations and affective and behavioral consequences. A core element in this integrative model is comparison. We review how comparison processes can change the cognitive and affective reference frame for illness and symptom perception and in turn affective and behavioral reactions. We discuss implications for measurement of illness and symptom representations as well as implications for clinical practice. Finally, we make suggestions for a research agenda to validate the proposed model as well as to address new questions derived from it.
已经提出了几种模型来概念化健康、疾病和身体感觉的心理表现。这些模型在包含的认知和情感成分、是否研究这些成分的相互作用以及是否考虑到身体状态的心理表现与对这些表现的情感和行为反应之间的关联是有条件的方面存在差异。这些不同的概念化和相应的测量方法并行存在，没有在该领域产生协同效应或理论进展。在本文中，我们回顾了关于感知和态度的理论模型，并构建了一个关于身体症状的心理表现以及更抽象的健康和疾病表现的综合理论框架。这种方法的结合旨在统一不同研究领域在身体状态的心理表现的概念化和测量方面的优势。此外，其目的是对这些心理表现与情感和行为后果的（有条件）关系提出新的、可测试的预测和影响。这个综合模型的一个核心要素是比较。我们回顾了比较过程如何改变疾病和症状感知的认知和情感参考框架，并进而影响情感和行为反应。我们讨论了对疾病和症状表现进行测量的影响以及对临床实践的影响。最后，我们为验证所提出的模型以及解决由此产生的新问题提出了研究议程建议。
