Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

The idea that people experience positive change through their struggles with adversity is very old. However, only recently has this idea generated widespread empirical research attention.People often claim to experience improved relationships with family and friends, a clearer sense of their own strengths and resilience, changed priorities about what is important in life, and various other positive changes after struggling with stressful or traumatic events. What are we to make of these claims? Can we determine whether perceptions of change reflect real, varifiable change - that is, is it possible for someone to believe that he or she has grown while still exhibiting the same old self-defeating thoughts and behaviors? Or, is the perception of change itself an important meaning reconstruction process? What factors influence personal growth, and what effect does growth have on physical and mental health?This book examines these issues in-depth and draws out implications for research and clinical practice. Because medical illness has been one of the primary contexts in which researchers have studied the phenomenon of positive life change, this book focuses on how positive life change might be fostered in the context of medical illness.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Contributors(p. xi)
• Foreword(p. xiii)
• Preface(p. xv)
• Introduction(p. 3)
• Part I Conceptual and Methodological Issues(p. 9)
• 1 Overview of Theoretical Perspectives(p. 11)
• 2 Assessing Positive Life Change: In Search of Meticulous Methods(p. 31)
• 3 Challenges in Studying Positive Change After Adversity: Illustrations From Research on Breast Cancer(p. 51)
• Part II Developmental Issues(p. 63)
• 4 Benefit Finding Among Children and Adolescents With Diabetes(p. 65)
• 5 Life Span Developmental Perspectives on Stress-Related Growth(p. 87)
• Part III Factors That Influence Positive Life Change(p. 105)
• 6 Lessons Learned About Benefit Finding Among Individuals With Cancer or HIV/AIDS(p. 107)
• 7 Illness Perceptions and Benefit Finding Among Individuals With Breast Cancer, Acoustic Neuroma, or Heart Disease(p. 125)
• 8 Positive Life Change and the Social Context of Illness: An Expanded Social-Cognitive Processing Model(p. 139)
• Part IV Effects of Positive Life Change(p. 153)
• 9 Biological Correlates: How Psychological Components of Benefit Finding May Lead to Physiological Benefits(p. 155)
• 10 Is Benefit Finding Good for Individuals With Chronic Disease?(p. 173)
• Part V Clinical Applications(p. 195)
• 11 Enhancing Positive Adaptation: Example Intervention During Treatment for Breast Cancer(p. 197)
• 12 The Clinician as Expert Companion(p. 215)
• Afterword(p. 237)
• Author Index(p. 241)
• Subject Index(p. 251)
• About the Editors(p. 261)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Although research literature abounds concerning the struggles of persons suffering physical illness, loss, or emotional trauma, this book examines the emerging research on positive life changes that can occur after illness. As noted by the editors, the concept currently has varying labels: stress-related growth, posttraumatic growth, or benefit finding. This groundbreaking volume serves as a unique collection of state-of-the-science summaries by prominent researchers centering on theoretical concepts and research methodologies, life-span issues, illness factors influencing positive growth, biological and sociological effects of positive life change, and applications of the research to clinical interventions. Directed largely to researchers and practitioners, the volume supplements earlier works on loss and trauma, including Meaning Reconstruction and the Experience of Loss, ed. by R. A. Neimeyer (CH, Oct'01, 39-1243), and Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth, ed. by R. G. Tedeschi and L. G. Calhoun. It presents research from specific contexts of medical illnesses including cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Contributors often highlight questions for future research and current implications that can be drawn for clinical practice. The final chapter, by Tedeschi and Calhoun, titled "The Clinician as Expert Companion," provides preliminary guidance to clinicians who may be involved with opportunities for posttraumatic growth. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through professionals/practitioners. M. K. Hartung Florida Gulf Coast University