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R T Croyle

Publications and source records attributed to R T Croyle.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Stereotypes associated with a low-fat diet and their relevance to nutrition education.

Two experiments and one correlational study were conducted to examine the nature and consequences of stereotypes of persons who eat either low-fat or high-fat diets. In Study 1, 132 college students were asked to describe the personal characteristics of a typical male or female peer who was associated with one of three diet characteristics (high-fat diet, low-fat diet, or no diet description). For Study 2, personal characteristics attributed to persons who eat either a low-fat or a high-fat diet that were obtained in Study 1 were converted into rating scales. In the second study, 164 participants were asked to rate one of six target personalities that were created by combining the three diet and two gender conditions (eg, a man who eats high-fat foods). These two studies revealed that both desirable and undesirable personal characteristics are attributed to individuals who eat high-fat diets and to those who eat low-fat diets. Persons eating low-fat diets were described and rated as being self-centered and fastidious students, whereas persons eating high-fat diets were described as being more easy going and more likely to attend parties. However, persons who eat low-fat foods were also described more favorably as being physically fit and attractive. In Study 3, we examined the relationship between stereotypes of persons who eat low-fat diets and reactions to a widely used cancer prevention booklet in a group of 177 undergraduates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Psychological minimization of cholesterol test results: moderators of appraisal in college students and community residents.

College students received randomly assigned desirable or borderline-high cholesterol test results. Borderline-high Ss rated high cholesterol as a less serious threat to health, viewed the test as less accurate, and perceived high cholesterol as more common than did those given desirable readings. High self-esteem or blunting coping style predicted lower distress after borderline-high readings but did not moderate cognitive appraisal. In Study 2, minimization was again observed among participants in a community screening, primarily among those who had never been tested. Although the never-tested group was younger and less knowledgeable about cholesterol, these factors did not account for minimization. The results support the generalizability of laboratory data on risk appraisal and provide new evidence regarding the nature and determinants of threat minimization.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Coping with health threat: social influence processes in reactions to medical test results.

In a laboratory experiment, undergraduate subjects tested positive for an enzyme deficiency they believed to be a risk factor for pancreatic disorders. All Ss were tested with a confederate who received a positive or negative test result. For half the Ss, the confederate expressed a minimizing appraisal of the deficiency's seriousness. Although Ss' concern about the test result was significantly reduced by what the confederate said, behavioral intentions were determined by the confederate's diagnostic status. The effect of the confederate's diagnostic status on intentions was mediated by Ss' perceptions of the deficiency's prevalence. The results support Leventhal's self-regulation theory and demonstrate that the opinions and health characteristics of comparison others have differential effects on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of coping with a health threat.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Illness cognition and behavior: an experimental approach.

The study of illness cognition and behavior has relied primarily on nonexperimental research designs. In this paper we review the results of a program of experimental investigations of psychological reactions to health threats. Most of the studies employ a new experimental paradigm developed to study illness cognition and behavior in the laboratory. The paradigm has been used in several experiments to examine the cognitive and motivational processes underlying reactions to medical test results. A converging series of studies has shown that denial, manifested in a variety of ways, is a common initial reaction to threatening information. In addition, the studies demonstrate that the perceived prevalence of a health disorder is an important determinant of its perceived seriousness. The insights gained from these studies illustrate the complementary roles of basic experimental research and more naturalistic observational research in the formulation of comprehensive theories of health and illness behavior.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Biased appraisal of high blood pressure.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of individuals' beliefs concerning their own blood pressure level on their appraisals of the seriousness of high blood pressure. In Experiment 1, 40 college students had their blood pressure measured and were randomly assigned to receive either high or normal blood pressure feedback. Afterward, they were asked to rate the seriousness of high blood pressure. Subjects who were given high blood pressure feedback rated the disorder as a less serious threat to health than did those subjects who received normal feedback. The results were replicated in Experiment 2 among a second sample of college students. Experiment 2 also revealed that minimization is associated with the belief that hypertension is an acute or cyclical condition. These experimental findings confirm clinical evidence that minimization is a common initial reaction to threatening medical information.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Development and validation of a food use checklist for evaluation of community nutrition interventions.

We developed a new dietary assessment instrument, the Food Behavior Checklist (FBC), which measures food use related to adopting lower-fat and higher-fiber diets. The FBC is a simplification of the 24-hour diet recall that consists of 19 simple yes/no questions about foods consumed during the previous day. To develop the FBC, an expert committee generated a list of foods based on our intervention program, and we used focus groups and random-digit dialing pretests to refine the format and clarify items. To validate the FBC, we compared responses of 96 women on the FBC to information collected during a professionally administered 24-hour diet recall. For most items, agreement between the FBC and 24-hour recall, based on the kappa statistic, was good to excellent. Agreement was poor for items requiring detailed knowledge about food composition (e.g. high-fiber cereal). There was a trend to over-report general food categories (e.g. luncheon meats) but not specific food items (e.g. ice cream). In an embedded randomized study, we found that a set of introductory items designed to serve as a memory retrieval cue did not improve agreement between the FBC and 24-hour recall. These data provide preliminary evidence supporting the use of short checklist questionnaires on the previous day's food use as a means to assess diet at the group or community level. This relatively inexpensive and rapid measure can be used to inform the design of public health nutrition programs and as an evaluation tool in intervention research.

Diet↗
PubMed1988

Common sense epidemiology: self-based judgments from laypersons and physicians.

This article reports two studies on a neglected aspect of common sense epidemiology: subjective estimates of the prevalence of symptoms and diseases. Based on social-psychological research on the false-consensus effect, it was hypothesized that subjects who had a history of a condition would estimate its prevalence to be greater than would subjects who did not have a history of that condition. This hypothesis was supported across several different symptoms and diseases. Expertise did not confer protection from the effect. It occurred among 110 college students in Study 1 as well as among 65 practicing physicians in Study 2. In addition, college students who estimated the prevalence of a condition as relatively high rated that condition as less life-threatening than did other students, and students who had a history of a condition rated it as less life-threatening than did their counterparts without such a history. The discussion focuses on (a) explanations of differences in prevalence estimates as a function of personal health history, (b) implications for laypersons' judgments of seriousness, their emotional reactions to illness threats, and their illness behavior, and (c) implications for physicians' diagnostic behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Effects of mood on self-appraisal of health status.

Two experiments investigated the effects of temporary mood on the self-perception of health status. In Experiment 1, participants viewed one of two videotapes designed to induce either positive or negative mood. Under the guise of a second experiment, they were asked to imagine an illness-related scenario and to provide judgments concerning their health status. As predicted, positive-induction participants judged their health more favorably than negative-induction participants. Experiment 2 examined the mediating role of illness-relevant thinking in this mood effect. After seeing one of the two mood-induction tapes, some participants were asked to imagine either an illness-related or illness-unrelated scenario. A third group was given no instructions concerning imagination. As predicted, the relative effect of negative mood on health appraisal was attenuated only among those who imagined a scenario unrelated to health. Furthermore, the pattern of symptom recall data mirrored the self-appraisal findings. The data are consistent with the notion that negative mood can affect subjective appraisals of health by increasing the accessibility of illness-related memories. Implications for diagnostic practice are explored.

Adult↗
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

Dissonance arousal: physiological evidence.

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether cognitive dissonance is accompanied by physiological arousal. In Experiment 1, a standard induced compliance paradigm was replicated and was found to produce the expected pattern of attitude change. In Experiment 2, physiological recordings were obtained within the same paradigm. Subjects who wrote counterattitudinal essays under high-choice conditions displayed significantly more nonspecific skin conductance responses than other subjects, but they did not change their attitudes. The results are interpreted as support for viewing dissonance as an arousal process. The results are also interpreted as indicating that the subjects misattributed their arousal to the physiological recording device. The significance of the findings for dissonance theory, misattribution phenomena, and social psychophysiological research methods is discussed.

Arousal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Maximizing worksite survey response rates through community organization strategies and multiple contacts.

BACKGROUND: Worksites are natural settings for health promotion. In many cases, the effectiveness of such interventions is appraised by surveying employees to assess worksite-wide changes in the targeted behavior. Little attention has been paid to increasing worksite survey response rates. One way is to utilize community organization strategies, which involve enlisting the individuals within a group to work together with researchers to affect the social environment. METHODS: Community organization strategies and multiple contacts were used to obtain responses from employees in five worksites involved in a smoking cessation project. Employee Advisory Board members in each worksite reviewed, adapted, and revised the survey distribution method, the messages that accompanied the survey, and the survey content. Three major survey waves were undertaken: a worksite effort, a home mailing (in the pilot worksite only), and a telephone call to nonrespondents. RESULTS: Response rates to a worksite-wide survey in one worksite the first year and four additional worksites the next year yielded 99.3% and 98.4% response rates, respectively. In the pilot worksite, 273 employees were eligible for the survey with 366 eligible employees in the four other worksites. Chi-square or analysis of variance computations were used, as appropriate, to test for differences in characteristics of respondents in the various data collection waves. DISCUSSION: These results suggest that there may be merit in adapting such community organization intervention methods for research applications.

Adult↗