The role of the complexity of women's self-concepts in the prediction of the importance of body image in adjustment to mastectomy with and without reconstruction.
详细信息
- 作者：Brower ; Eleanor Irene.
- 学历：Doctor
- 年：2003
- 导师：Read, Joan B.
- 毕业院校：Fielding Graduate Institute
- 专业：Psychology, Clinical.;Women's Studies.;Health Sciences, Oncology.
- CBH：3082489
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：9284214
- Pages：254
文摘
The purpose of this study was twofold. The first purpose was to explain some of the confusion between the qualitative breast cancer studies that have found greater self-concepts in mastectomy patients who have had breast reconstruction surgery than those who have not had this additional surgery and the prior quantitative studies that have failed to find significant differences between these two groups of women. The second purpose of this research, relative to self-concept, was to examine the role of the cultural “objectification” of women in a breast cancer population. The role of objectification had not been studied in a group of women facing a life-threatening illness. To accomplish the first goal of this study, I did two things. First, in the sample of 140 mid-life mastectomy patients, with and without breast reconstruction surgery, who had been diagnosed with Stage 0, Stage 1, or Stage II breast cancer, I examined self-concept from a multidimensional perspective as well as the global perspective that has been used in the prior quantitative research. Second, I examined forces other than the consequences of the reconstruction decision that I believed would influence these women's self-concepts and that might, in fact, override the importance of the reconstruction decision in determining their overall, or global, self-concepts. To accomplish the second goal of this study (i.e., to examine the role of objectification in a population facing a potentially lethal illness), I administered McKinley's (1995) Objectified Body Consciousness scale to the sample.;Findings were that (1) the two groups of mastectomy patients had different multidimensional profiles, although their global self-concepts were basically the same; (2) three factors (i.e., James' [1890] “ratio” of perceived success to importance of success in life domains individuals judge themselves; perceived closeness of relationship with partner; body mass index) overrode the reconstruction decision in determining overall, or global, self-concept; and (3) women who had chosen breast reconstruction surgery had been more influenced by the cultural objectification of women than those who had opted not to have this additional surgery.