Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States (American Heart Association, 2008). Research suggests that individuals' attributions for their cardiac events (e.g., heart attack) have the potential to impact their perceptions of control over their cardiac disease and recovery and, by extension, have the potential to influence whether they participate in cardiac rehabilitation programs and make important cardiovascular health behavior changes (e.g., smoking cessation, dietary alterations, and increased exercise). This study tested the possible mediating effect of perceptions of control on the relation between self-blame attributions and physical health in a sample of cardiac rehabilitation patients. An interaction between behavioral self-blame attributions and characterological self-blame attributions in predicting perceptions of control was also tested. A two-wave longitudinal design was used to test these hypotheses using a sample of 109 participants over a 12-week period. Time 1 data consisted of self-report measures of self-blame attributions and perceptions of control, as well as objective indicators of cardiovascular health obtained from patients' medical records. Time 2 data consisted solely of objective health indicators gathered from patient records. Results showed that perceptions of control did not mediate the relation between self-blame attributions and cardiovascular health. Furthermore, the two sources of self-blame did not interact to predict perceptions of control over cardiac disease and recovery. Potential reasons for the non-significant findings are discussed, including inadequate statistical power and methodological limitations associated with the study's measures. Based on these and other limitations, a number of recommendations were made, including longitudinal study of objective health indicators among cardiac rehabilitation patients over a longer period of time, as well as efforts to develop more reliable and valid measures of behavioral and characterological self-blame.
Recommended Citation
Nett, Sara D., "Effect Of Self -Blame Attributions And Perceptions Of Control Over Recovery On Physical Health In Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients" (2008). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 983.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/983