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Expression of Positive Emotion by People Who Are Physically Ill: Is It Evidence of Defending or Coping?

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Content Analysis of Verbal Behavior

Abstract

Expression of positive emotion by patients hospitalized because of illness or injury is rarely expected by the medical and nursing staff who work with them, nor has such expression of good feelings and contentment been examined in any detail by researchers. Some evidence of this phenomenon is now emerging in the literature [1]. The more severe their illness, the more positive emotion patients express [2]. Yet, the less severe they perceive the handicaps induced by their illness to be, the more positive emotion they express [3]. It is possible to view positive emotion as a distortion of the distressed emotions which are more appropriate reactions to illness and injury [4]. It is also possible to see it as an indication of the high quality of life some patients can maintain in spite of coping with multiple stressors [5]. The expression of positive emotion has been found to be associated with both poor [6] and good [7] medical prognoses. Hence, it may be evidence of either defending or coping.

Reprinted from the Journal of Psychosomatic Research (29 December 1985) with permission of the author and publisher. This research has drawn on funding from both the Australian Research Grants Scheme (Grant No. 77/15046R) and the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Health.

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Authors
  1. Linda L. Viney
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatric Consultation and Liaison Division, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, 92717, Irvine, CA, USA

    Louis A. Gottschalk M.D., Ph.D. (Professor of Psychiatry and Director) (Professor of Psychiatry and Director)

  2. Psychophysiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, P.O. Box 70055, Santiago 7, Chile

    Fernando Lolas M. D. (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong, P.O. Box 1144, 2500, Wollongong, N.S.W., Australia

    Linda Louise Viney (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Viney, L.L. (1986). Expression of Positive Emotion by People Who Are Physically Ill: Is It Evidence of Defending or Coping?. In: Gottschalk, L.A., Lolas, F., Viney, L.L. (eds) Content Analysis of Verbal Behavior. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71085-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71085-8_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-16322-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-71085-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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