Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Psychology and Health on 12/09/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08870446.2016.1235165
Accepted author manuscript, 673 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential disgust responding in people with cancer and implications for psychological wellbeing
AU - Azlan, Haffiezhah A.
AU - Overton, Paul
AU - Simpson, Jane
AU - Powell, Phillip
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Psychology and Health on 12/09/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08870446.2016.1235165
PY - 2017/1/2
Y1 - 2017/1/2
N2 - Objectives: Evidence suggests that disgust responses, known to negatively affect psychological wellbeing, may differ in people with cancer. We performed the first quantitative investigation of three discrete types of disgust trait - disgust propensity, sensitivity, and self-directed disgust - in people diagnosed with a broad range of cancers (versus cancer-free controls), and explored their associations with psychological wellbeing.Design: In a cross-sectional survey design, 107 participants with heterogeneous cancer diagnoses, recruited from cancer charities and support groups, were matched with cancer-free controls by age and gender.Outcome measures: Measures of the three disgust traits were taken alongside measures of anxiety and depression.Results: Disgust sensitivity and physical self-disgust were significantly higher in the cancer than control sample, while disgust propensity and behavioural self-disgust were lower. The disgust traits had a different pattern of associations to psychological wellbeing across the two groups, with disgust sensitivity predicting depressive symptoms to a significantly greater extent in the cancer than control group.Conclusions: People with cancer differ from matched controls in their disgust responses and these responses have significant predictive relationships with aspects of their psychological wellbeing. The results suggest that emotion-based interventions may be useful for improving psychological wellbeing in people with cancer.
AB - Objectives: Evidence suggests that disgust responses, known to negatively affect psychological wellbeing, may differ in people with cancer. We performed the first quantitative investigation of three discrete types of disgust trait - disgust propensity, sensitivity, and self-directed disgust - in people diagnosed with a broad range of cancers (versus cancer-free controls), and explored their associations with psychological wellbeing.Design: In a cross-sectional survey design, 107 participants with heterogeneous cancer diagnoses, recruited from cancer charities and support groups, were matched with cancer-free controls by age and gender.Outcome measures: Measures of the three disgust traits were taken alongside measures of anxiety and depression.Results: Disgust sensitivity and physical self-disgust were significantly higher in the cancer than control sample, while disgust propensity and behavioural self-disgust were lower. The disgust traits had a different pattern of associations to psychological wellbeing across the two groups, with disgust sensitivity predicting depressive symptoms to a significantly greater extent in the cancer than control group.Conclusions: People with cancer differ from matched controls in their disgust responses and these responses have significant predictive relationships with aspects of their psychological wellbeing. The results suggest that emotion-based interventions may be useful for improving psychological wellbeing in people with cancer.
KW - cancer
KW - disgust propensity
KW - disgust sensitivity
KW - oncology
KW - psychological wellbeing
KW - self-disgust
U2 - 10.1080/08870446.2016.1235165
DO - 10.1080/08870446.2016.1235165
M3 - Journal article
VL - 32
SP - 19
EP - 37
JO - Psychology and Health
JF - Psychology and Health
SN - 0887-0446
IS - 1
ER -