Verbalization of Emotion in Chronic Pain Patients and their Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

Little attention has been paid to the issue of emotional verbalization in people undergoing chronic situations. We addressed this issue in the present study focusing on chronic pain patients. Our study investigated the verbalization of their health-related emotions, as well as the role of interpersonal variables on patients’ disclosure, and their relation to their psychological adjustment. Results indicate that chronic pain patients talk more frequently about their illness with their intimates. Yet, the medical staff represents a favored sharing target as it elicits the highest satisfaction degree. Results also reveal that others’ social constraint behavior and lack of credibility of sufferers’ health status negatively predict patients’ psychological adjustment. Therefore, the social environment appears to play a significant part in patients’ well-being.

Keywords

chronic pain emotion psychological adjustment social sharing verbalization

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Becker, N. , Thomsen, A. B. , Olsen, A. K. , Sjøgren, P. , Bech, P. , & Eriksen, J. (1997). Pain epidemiology and health related quality of life in chronic non-malignant pain patients referred to a Danish multidisciplinary pain center . Pain, 73, 393-400 .

Bourgignon, L. (2001). Impact du support social sur le bien-être psychologique et physique de douloureux chroniques non cancéreux [Impact of social support on psychological and physical well-being of chronic pain patients without cancer]. Mémoire de Licence non publié, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique .

Burgess, M. M. (1980). Nurses’ pain ratings of patients with acute and chronic low back pain. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, VA.

Christophe, V. , & Rimé, B. (1997). Exposure to the social sharing of emotion: Emotional impact, listerner responses and secondary social sharing . European Journal of Social Psychology, 27, 37-54 .

Helmrath, T. A. , & Steinitz, E. M. (1978). Death of an infant: Parental grieving and the failure of social support . Journal of Family Practice, 6, 785-790 .

Herbette, G. , & Rimé, B. (2003). Psychological adjustment to chronic pain. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Hirsch, B. (1979). Psychological dimensions of social networks: A multimethod analysis . American Journal of Community Psychology, 7, 263-277 .

Kastenbaum, R. , & Aisenberg, R. (1972). The psychology of death. New York: Springer .

King, L. A. , & Emmons, R. A. (1990). Conflict over emotional expression: Psychological and physical correlates . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 864-877 .

10.

Laudenslager, M. L. , & Reite, M. L. (1984). Losses and separations: immunological consequences and health implications. In P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology (vol. 5, pp. 285-312). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications .

11.

Lehman, D. R. , Ellard, J. H. , & Wortman, C. B. (1986). Social support for the bereaved: Recipients’ and providers’ persepctives on what is helpful . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 438-446 .

12.

Lepore, S. J. , Silver, R. C. , Wortman, C. B. , & Wayment, H. A. (1996). Social constraints, intrusive thoughts, and depressive symptoms among bereaved mothers . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 271-282 .

13.

Maes, S. , Leventhal, H. , & de Ridder, D. (1996). Coping with chronic diseases. In M. Zeidner & N. Endler (Eds.), Handbook of coping: Theory, research, application (pp. 221-251). New York: Wiley .

14.

Manne, S. L. , & Zautra, A. J. (1989). Spouse criticism and support: Their association with coping and psychological adjustment among women with rheumatoid arthritis . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 608-617 .

15.

McCracken L. M. , Zayfert, C. , & Gross R. T. (1992). The Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale: Development and validation of a scale to measure fear of pain . Pain, 50, 67-73 .

16.

Mehl, M. R. , & Pennebaker, J. W. (in press). The sounds of social life: A psychometric analysis of students’ daily social environments and natural conversations . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

17.

Mehl, M. R. , Pennebaker, J. W. , Crow, M. , Dabbs, J. , & Price, J. (2001). The Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR): A device for sampling naturalistic daily activities and conversations . Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 33, 517-523 .

18.

Mitchell, G. W. , & Glicksman, A. S. (1977). Cancer patients: Knowledge and attitudes . Cancer, 40, 61-66 .

19.

Morley, S. , Doyle, K. , & Beese, A. (2000). Talking to others about pain: Suffering in silence . Progress in Pain Research and Management, 16, 1123-1129 .

20.

Osborn, M. , & Smith, J. A. (1998). The personal experience of chronic benign lower back pain: An interpretative phenomenological analysis . British Journal of Health Psychology, 3, 65-83 .

21.

Pennebaker, J. W. (1985). Traumatic experience and psychosomatic disease: Exploring the roles of behavioral inhibition, obsession, and confiding . Canadian Psychology, 26, 82-95 .

22.

Pennebaker, J. W. (1989). Confession, inhibition, and disease. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (vol. 22, pp. 211-244). New York: Academic Press .

23.

Pennebaker, J. W. (2002). What our words say about us: Pronouns in social and personality psychology . Conference at the Clinical Psychology Unit: Emotion, Cognition, and Health, University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, April.

24.

Pennebaker, J. W. , Francis, M. E. , & Booth, R. J. (2001). Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count: LIWC2001. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates .

25.

Pennebaker, J. W. , & Harber, K. D. (1993). A social stage model of collective coping: The Loma Prieta Earthquake and the Persian Gulf War . Journal of Social Issues, 49, 125-145 .

26.

Pennebaker, J. W. , & Mehl, M. (2002). The social dynamics of a cultural upheaval . In A. S. de Rosa (Chair), Social memory and emotional impact towards traumatic collective events: The 11th September 2001 . Symposium conducted at the 13th General Meeting of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, San Sebastian, Spain, June.

27.

Penny, K. I. , Purves, A. M. , Smith, B. H. , Chambers, W. A. , & Smith, W. C. (1999). Relationship between the chronic pain grade and measures of physical, social and psychological well-being . Pain, 79, 275-279 .

28.

Peters-Golden, H. (1982). Breast cancer: Varied perceptions of social support in the illness experience . Social Science and Medicine, 16, 483-491 .

29.

Pierce, G. R. , Sarason, I. G. , & Sarason, B. R. (1991). General and relationship-based perceptions of social support: Are two constructs better than one? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 1028-1039 .

30.

Quit, J. C. (1965). Institutionalized practice of information control . Psychiatry, 28, 119-132 .

31.

Radley, A. (1994). Making sense of illness: The social psychology of health and disease. London: Sage Publications .

32.

Rhodes, L. A. , McPhillips-Tangum, C. A. , Markham, C. and Klenck, R. (1999). The power of the visible: The meaning of diagnostic tests in chronic back pain . Social Science and Medicine, 48, 1189-1203 .

33.

Rimé, B. , Finkenauer, C. , Luminet, O. , Zech, E. , & Philippot, P. (1998). Social sharing of emotion: New evidence and new questions. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (vol. 9, pp. 145-189). Chichester: Wiley .

34.

Rimé, B. , Philippot, P. , Boca, S. , & Mesquita, B. (1992). Long-lasting cognitive and social consequences of emotion: Social sharing and rumination. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (vol. 3, pp. 225-258). Chichester: Wiley .

35.

Romano, J. M. , & Turner, J. A. (1985). Chronic pain and depression: Does the evidence support a relationship? Psychological Bulletin, 97, 18-34 .

36.

Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .

37.

Silver, R. C. , & Wortman, C. B. (1980). Coping with undesirable life events. In J. Garber & M. E. P. Seligman (Eds.), Human helplessness (pp. 279-340). New York: Academic Press .

38.

Skelton, J. A. (1991). Laypersons’ judgments of patient credibility and the study of illness representations. In J. A. Skelton & R. T. Croyle (Eds.), Mental representation in health and illness (pp. 108-131). New York: Springer-Verlag .

39.

Taylor, A. G. , Skelton, J. A. , & Butcher, J. (1984). Duration of pain condition and physical pathology as determinants of nurses’ assessments of patients in pain . Nursing Research, 33, 4-8 .

40.

Vallieres, E. F. , & Vallerand, R. J. (1990). Traduction et validation canadienne-française de l’échelle de l’estime de soi de Rosenberg . International Journal of Psychology, 25, 305-316 .

41.

Ware, N. C. (1992). Suffering and the social construction of illness: The delegitimation of illness and experience in chronic fatigue syndrome . Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 6, 347-361 .

42.

Wortman, C. B. , & Dunkel-Schetter, C. (1979). Interpersonal relationships and cancer: A theoretical analysis . Journal of Social Issues, 35, 120-155 .

43.

Zech, E. (2000). The effects of the communication of emotional experiences. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univerity of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

44.

Zigmond, A. S. , & Snaith, R. P. (1983). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale . Acta Psychiatriaca Scandinavica, 67, 361-370 .