Illn e s s Per c ep t i on

gy
Course: Health Psycholo
Ms. Shazia Jabeen
Lecturer
gy
Department of Psycholo
men
Jinnah University for Wo
 Introduction
• When people seek medical attention? How do they know about their illness?
We discussed a story earlier about a young man who got his hand injured
during an activity. He tried many alternative before going the doctor.
Alternatives were trying to heal his hand with home remedies and
consulting to people around him. What led him to use home remedies and
avoid the medical attention? Why it was difficult to decide to seek medical
care?
• In this lecture we will discuss the concept of health and illness and first we
will define the terms: health, disease and illness.
 Outline

• Defining Health & Illness

• Stages of Dealing with Symptoms
• Factors Shaping People’s Response to Symptoms
• Next Lecture Link
• Reference
 Learning Objectives

In this lecture students will learn about:

• Concepts of Health & Illness
• Stages of seeking medical attention
• Factors affecting people’s decision of seeking medical care
 Definition of Health & Illness

Health:
In first chapter we discussed about WHO’s definition of health. “Health refers to the positive physical,
mental and social wellbeing and not just a mere absence of disease and infirmity.
Disease:
Disease refers to the process of physical damage within the body, which can exist even in the absence of a
label or diagnosis.
Illness:
Illness, on the other hand, refers to the experience of being sick and having been diagnosed as being sick.
People may have a disease and not the ill. For example some with undiagnosed hypertension or diabetes
has the disease but due to unavailability of diagnosis they are not considered as ill. On the other hand
people may experience physical symptoms like headache, a painful shoulder but this does not indicate a
disease. Errors are possible on both dimensions of health and illness.
 Two Stages of Dealing with Symptoms
• 1-Illness Behavior:
• Illness behavior is that when people experience symptoms but they have not received a
diagnosis yet. The illness behavior occurs before diagnosis. The activities in illness behavior
are directed towards achieving two goals: one is to determine the s
• Status of one’s health and second is to find out the suitable remedies. Examples are
seeking opinions of others and engaging in lab testing for physical symptoms.
•  
• 2-Sick Role Behavior:
• Sick role behavior is the term applied to the behavior of people after the diagnosis, either
from health care provider or self-diagnosis. The activities in sick role behavior are directed
towards getting well. Examples are adherence to medical advice taking rest and trying to
avoid activities that worsen the condition.
 Factors Shaping People’s Response to
Symptoms
There are six factors that shape people’s response to experience of physical symptoms.
Personal factors
• How people view their body
• Stress
• Personality
• A-When people are not aware of their body they tend to misinterpret the symptoms and
avoid seeking medical attention.
• B-People experience more stress in their routine life are more likely to seek medical care
compared to those who experience less stress.
• C-People with high level of personality trait neuroticism tend to self-report illness more
compared to other people even when there is no objective evidence of their symptoms.
 Cont.

• Gender differences
Women are more likely to seek medical care compared to men even when they
have minor health problems.
• Age
Young and middle aged people tend to show reluctance in seeking medical
care compared to older adults. Older people are more willing to seek medical
care.
 Cont.
• Culture/Ethnicity and perception of illness
Researches indicated that poor have more chances to get sick compared to
people belong to upper and middle socioeconomic status however they have
lesser resources to seek medical care. Furthermore, poor people are more
likely to delay seeking medical care for their symptom which leads to
worsening the health condition. Culture also play a role in determining the
response of people towards medical care. In different researches it was found
that European American were more likely to report their visits to physicians
compared to other population groups.
 Cont.
• Symptom characteristics of disease
• Symptoms characteristics of a disease also influence people’s decisions
regarding seeking medical care.
• Visibility of symptoms is an important factor in determining people’s
decision of seeking medical care. When symptoms of a disease are visible
people are more likely to get involved in illness behavior. Contrary to that if
symptoms of a disease are not visible people are reluctant to seek medical
care.
 Cont.

• Second factor is perceived severity of symptoms. If certain symptoms are

perceived serious there are more chances that an action would be taken. For
example discoloration of a body part.
• Third is the extent to which a symptom interferes with a person’s life. For
example injury and inflammation are the examples.
• Fourth is frequency and persistence of symptoms. If a symptoms persists for
longer or appears repeatedly, there are more chances that action would be
taken to seek medical care.
 Next Lecture

• Conceptualization of disease
• This topic will be covered in next lecture.
 Reference

• Brannon, L. & Feist, J. (2007). Health Psychology: An Introduction to

Behavior and Health (6th ed.), Psychological Impact of Chronic illness (pp.
298-302). USA: Wadsworth Publishing.