The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between health expectations and compliance in persons who were attending a cardiac rehabilitation program. Three subscales of the Olivas Health Motivation Scale were administered to a convenience sample of 23 subjects at two points in time: at the beginning and at the completion of the prescribed sessions. A significant relationship was found between Stimulus Outcome Expectations and the duration of exercise at the beginning of the cardiac rehabilitation sessions (r = -.51, p =.02). The relationship between Regimen Efficacy Expectations and the duration of exercise was also found to be significant at the beginning of the sessions (r = -.40, p =.05). There was no significant relationship between health expectations and compliance at the completion of the sessions. One measure of health expectations, Stimulus Outcome Expectations (F = 10.11, p =.01), and two measures of compliance, duration of exercise (F = 406.45, p =.00) and metabolic equivalents (F = 74.14, p =.00), were significantly different between the beginning and the completion of cardiac rehabilitation.

No description available.

Belief constructs appear to govern many aspects of life and may have an influence on coping with severe disability. This study investigated the extent to which coping with a stroke is identified by the belief constructs of just world, locus of control, attribution, and reformulated learned helplessness. The data were collected at a comprehensive rehabilitation center from thirty consenting stroke victims. The sample included 17 women and 12 men with a mean age of 64. The median number of days from the stroke to rehabilitation was 16. Twenty subjects had left hemiparesis and ten subjects had right hemiparesis.In addition to the belief-construct predictor variables, nature-of-stroke and demographic variables were collected during an initial evaluation. Demographic variables included sex, age, marital status, occupation, education, and recreation. Nature-of-stroke variables included period of time since stroke, diagnosis, severity, location, and aphasia as measured by the 'Aphasia Language Performance Scales' (Keenan & Brassell, 1975). The belief constructs were measured by the 'Just World Scale' (Rubin & Peplau, 1975), the 'Internal-External Locus of Control Scale" (Collins, 1974), and an adapted version of the 'Attribution Style Questionnaire' (Seligman, 1984). A coping measure was introduced as the criterion variable. It was administered 21 days following the initial evaluation and is based upon the ratings of the stroke victims' therapists. It includes a scale to more clearly define coping.The results of the study did not produce a clear definition of coping, although cognitive, emotional, and physical factors were evident. In addition, there was preliminary evidence of reliability and validity for measures of this construct. The linear composite of five variables was statistically significant (p < .01) and identified 56% of the variance in the coping measure. The significance of these variables suggests that successful coping is associated with older subjects who had passive premorbid recreation, were admitted relatively soon after their stroke, were rated as having a mild stroke, and made stable attributions about rehabilitation. The fact that one of the belief-construct variables (stability of attribution about rehabilitation) was significant, despite the small sample size, is encouraging and justifies further research in this area.

In recent years there has been considerable interest and research examining psychological distress resulting from athletic injuries, as well as coping strategies for an enhanced recovery. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological effects of sport related concussions and to determine if participation in support groups can reduce these psychological side effects. Participants included concussed male and female varsity or comparable elite level athletes who were placed in either a control or an experimental group. All subjects completed the Profile of Mood States and the Post Concussion Rating Scale. Participants in the experimental group received three support group intervention sessions, while those in the control group received no intervention. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. It was revealed that participants in the experimental group improved their mood state. In addition to the impact of support groups on concussed athletes, factors influencing their moods were also identified including the concussion history of the athletes, the stage of rehabilitation, gender, and number of concussion symptoms.

The use of a structured goal setting program in injury rehabilitation has not been empirically tested, but many others have noted that its use could increase compliance. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a structured goal setting program on individuals' compliance to injury rehabilitation; secondly, to examine the hardiness levels of those individuals, and determine if there was a relationship between their levels of hardiness and compliance to the treatment. Individuals who sought services of Ball Memorial Hospital Health Strategies for a back injury (N = 15) participated by first completing the Personal Views Survey. Then, the control group ( = 6) completed their normal rehabilitation program, while the experimental group ( = 9) completed their rehabilitation program using a structured goal setting program. Finally, both groups completed a post-hardiness survey. The researcher found no significant difference in compliance rates between the two groups. All of the injured participants recorded moderate hardiness levels and a low correlation was observed between hardiness and compliance to treatment. / School of Physical Education

This study examined the effects of self-monitoring behavior and health locus of control on improvement in a work hardening program. The subjects included 22 male and 18 female outpatients in a hospital-based rehabilitation program. Subjects were classified as having an internal or external health locus of control, and were randomly assigned to either a self-monitoring or a non-self-monitoring group. Improvement was assessed via objective performance data and self-ratings of perceived improvement. The results indicated that individuals identified as having an internal health locus of control did not show greater gains in physical functioning or perceived improvement relative to externally oriented individuals. Additionally, those subjects participating in self-monitoring activities were no different from non-self-monitoring subjects in terms of improvement in exercise activities or perceived improvement. The results also indicated no interaction between health locus of control and the presence or absence of self-monitoring. It was suggested that other factors such as workman's compensation, pain patient characteristics, low self-concept, and severe stress may have proved more powerful influences on patient improvement than internal health locus of control or self-monitoring. It was also suggested that rehabilitation programs might benefit from creating structured environments in which patients receive frequent staff feedback and reinforcement for improvement. Monitoring small, discrete, easily attainable goals might prove more effective than monitoring mood, pain, etc. In addition, teaching specific internal health locus of control behaviors to patients may help them improve their self-concepts and progress. Further research is needed to explore the roles that pain patient personality characteristics, self-concept, and stress play in the progress of patients in a work hardening program.

No description available.

A series of four studies examined the emotional climate of elite sport, and tested the utility of an emotional disclosure intervention during sport injury rehabilitation. Overall, results from the investigations indicated that athletes' usual coping mechanism during injury rehabilitation was to inhibit and suppress felt emotions, while displaying mock emotions that were considered acceptable within their sport climate. Pennebaker's (1989) written disclosure paradigm was shown to address athletes' emotionally inhibitive coping style and encourage psychological and physical well-being. It was found to be a viable alternative to psychotherapy within the sport injury context. Athletes showed improvements in stress and mood disturbance, and fewer grief responses towards their injury. Affective and cognitive linguistic markers also showed changes during the 3-day intervention period, leading to the informed assumption that there was a likely association between changes in athletes' psychological responses to injury post-intervention and changes among the linguistic markers of interest. Results were discussed in the context of the broader sport psychology of injury research and limitations of the present investigations were discussed. Recommendations were made for future research into intervention research targeting the psychological experience of long-term injury.

This study explored the impact of three psychological interventions over seven weeks - goal setting (GS), GS and imagery (IM), and GS and mindful self-compassion (MSC) - on 20 athletes' (Mage = 16.75 years) pain, cognitive appraisal, depression reinjury anxiety, psychological readiness to return to sport, and range of motion (ROM). IM and GS interventions have demonstrated initial effectiveness; however, no study has examined MSC in relation to post-ACL recovery. All athletes experienced significant decrease in pain (F(2) = 97.30, p = .000) from Week 1 to Week 7 and a significant increase in ROM from Week 2 to Week 7 (F(1) = 77.93, p = .000). All athletes experienced significantly higher depression at Week 1 compared to both Week 2 and Week 7 (F(2) = 9.01, p = .001), and significantly higher difficulty coping with their injury at Weeks 1 and 2 compared to Week 7 (F(2) = 6.32, p = .005). There were no statistically significant effects found between the intervention groups at Weeks 1, 2, and 7. However there were moderate effect sizes between interventions which suggest MSC and IM could help athletes cope with their injury during the first few weeks after surgery, and GS may contribute towards less depression at seven weeks post-surgery. Limitations include small sample size, low power, and use of self-report measures. Results have implications for orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, and health professionals working with athletes recovering from serious sport injury.

One hundred persons applying for services with the Texas Rehabilitation Commission with reported disabilities of alcohol/substance abuse or back injury/pain were selected for study. Subjects were assigned to two groups (alcohol or back) according to their reported disability. They were tested within one week of application and after 60 days were checked to see what rehabilitation status they were in to determine success or failure. Alcohol clients were administered the Health Attribution Test (HAT), 16PF, and an Alcohol Imagery questionnaire developed for this study. Back clients were administered the HAT, 16PF, and Pain Drawings. Statistical procedures including Pearson correlation, stepwise discriminant analysis, and discriminant analysis were performed. The HAT Internal Factor showed a significant relationship to rehabilitation success or failure and the 16PF motivation indices approached significance. The discriminant analysis demonstrated that success or failure could be predicted at a significant level using these measures. Issues of practicality in using these instruments (particularly imagery measures) in a rehabilitation counseling practice were noted.