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Biomedical subjects

J B Jemmott

Publications and source records attributed to J B Jemmott.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Social motives and susceptibility to disease: stalking individual differences in health risks.

This article reviews studies on the relation between social motives and susceptibility to physical illness. The motives examined in the studies include power motivation and affiliation motivation and their related syndromes such as inhibited power and relaxed affiliation. The subject populations include college students as well as adults. Blood pressure, self-reports of illnesses, catecholamines, and parameters of immunologic functioning are among the indices of health outcomes investigated. Taken together, these studies suggest that social motives may be importantly related to susceptibility to illness, that the power motive may be related to heightened susceptibility to illness, particularly when the person is under stress, whereas the affiliation motive may be related to diminished susceptibility to illness.

Humans↗
PubMed1986

Judging health status: effects of perceived prevalence and personal relevance.

In this article, we show that people's evaluations of the seriousness of a health disorder are influenced by the perceived prevalence and personal relevance of that disorder. As part of a study ostensibly concerned with college students' health characteristics, 60 undergraduates were "tested" for the presence of a fictitious enzyme deficiency. The subjects discovered either that they had the deficiency (deficiency-present subjects) or that they did not have it (deficiency-absent subjects), and were led to believe either that 1 of the 5 people in the laboratory had the deficiency (low-prevalence subjects) or that 4 of them had it (high-prevalence subjects). As predicted, the low-prevalence subjects evaluated the deficiency as more serious than did the high-prevalence subjects. In addition, consistent with the view that personal relevance affects perceptions of health disorders, the deficiency-present subjects evaluated the deficiency as less serious than did the deficiency-absent subjects. The deficiency-present subjects also derogated the validity of the test ostensibly used to diagnose the deficiency compared with other subjects. Finally, the deficiency-present subjects requested more information about the deficiency than did the deficiency-absent subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Academic stress, power motivation, and decrease in secretion rate of salivary secretory immunoglobulin A.

The effect of academic stress on immune function, as measured by the rate of secretion of salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA), was studied prospectively in 64 first-year dental school students. Perceived stress and s-IgA secretion rate were measured five times--during an initial low-stress period, three high-stress periods coinciding with major examinations, and a final low-stress period. The s-IgA secretion rate was significantly lower in high-stress than low-stress periods for the whole group. In addition, personality characteristics differentiated patterns of s-IgA secretion rates. Students characterised by a great need to establish and maintain warm personal relationships secreted more s-IgA at each point than did all other subjects. The s-IgA secretion rates of those with a high inhibited need for power continued to decline through the final low-stress period rather than recovering as in all other subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Power motivation, stress and physical illness.

College students reporting a large number of life change events in the past six months also reported significantly more frequent and more severe instances of physical illness and more affective symptoms in the same time period. These relationships, however, were modified in an interesting way by type of life change and by individual differences. Life change events were classified as involving power, affiliative or other stresses. Individuals scoring high in the need for Power (n Power), in inhibition, and in the number of power stresses (HHH subjects), reported more severe physical illness and affective symptoms than all other subjects or, in particular, subjects low in n Power, power stress and inhibition (LLL subjects). Individuals scoring high in Power and high in either inhibition or power stress also reported significantly more severe physical illness than other subjects. Among subjects high in inhibition, affiliative stress in combination with high n Power was associated with more severe physical illness, but, among subjects low in inhibition, affiliative stress in combination with high n Affiliation was associated with more physical illness. Affiliative stress was unrelated to affective symptoms. Other stress was unrelated either alone or in combination with other variable to physical illness or affective symptoms. The findings are interpreted as consistent with the hypothesis that subjects in the HHH category compared with other subjects are characterized by chronically high sympathetic activity which has immunosuppressive effects, making them more illness prone.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Increasing condom-use intentions among sexually active black adolescent women.

Whether a social cognitive theory AIDS prevention intervention would increase intentions to use condoms among 109 sexually active inner-city black female adolescents was tested. Analyses revealed that the women scored higher in intentions to use condoms, AIDS knowledge, outcome expectancies regarding condom use, and self-efficacy to use condoms after the intervention than before the intervention. Although increased self-efficacy and more favorable outcome expectancies regarding the effects of condoms on sexual enjoyment and sexual partner's support for condom use were significantly related to increased condom-use intentions, increases in general AIDS knowledge and specific prevention-related beliefs were not.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Predicting AIDS patient care intentions among nursing students.

Predictors of intentions to care for AIDS patients were examined among 153 sophomore and senior nursing students. Multiple regression analysis revealed that students who had relatively less AIDS knowledge and who perceived greater occupational risk of HIV infection expressed stronger intentions to avoid caring for AIDS patients. However, avoidance intentions were not simply a function of concern about personal health and inadequate knowledge. Students who held more negative attitudes toward intravenous drug users also had stronger intentions to avoid caring for AIDS patients, even when the effects of AIDS knowledge and perceived occupational risk of HIV infection were controlled. AIDS content is incorporated in the nursing curriculum for these students beginning in the junior year. Multivariate analysis of variance performed to determine the effects of this content revealed a significant effect for year in school considering all the dependent variables simultaneously. Seniors had lower avoidance intentions, lower perceived occupational risk, and greater AIDS knowledge than did sophomores.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Applying the theory of reasoned action to AIDS risk behavior: condom use among black women.

This study tested hypotheses regarding attitudinal and normative influences on intentions to use condoms, a practice that would reduce women's risk of sexually transmitted HIV infection. Participants were 103 sexually active unmarried black women undergraduates at an inner-city commuter university, in an area with a high rate of reported AIDS cases among women. Consistent with the theory of reasoned action, multiple regression analysis on women's anonymous responses to a mailed survey revealed that those who registered more favorable attitudes toward condoms and those who perceived subjective norms more supportive of condom use reported firmer intentions to use condoms in the next three months. Key behavioral beliefs related to attitudes centered on the adverse effects of condom use on sexual enjoyment. Key normative influences were respondents' sexual partners and mothers. However, women's own attitudes were a stronger determinant of intentions to use condoms than were their perceptions of normative influences, particularly among women with above-average AIDS knowledge. The results suggest that the theory of reasoned action provides a potentially useful conceptual framework for interventions to change a key AIDS risk behavior among women.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗