Anxiety and self-esteem before surgery in patients suffering from cancer. Implicit self-esteem compensation in ego-threatening conditions

• Authors: Aleksandra Fila–Jankowska , Urszula Stachowiak
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The assumption was verifi ed that for patients suffering from cancer levels of anxiety and self-esteem differ compared to other patients before surgery. 120 patients of urology were assigned to subgroups according to diagnosis (cancer vs. non-cancer) and the duration of hospitalization (5 days vs. 1 day). Patients suffering from cancer declared higher anxiety than other patients. Longer hospitalization was connected to higher anxiety. A threat-congruent difference in explicit self-esteem was revealed only between two groups: 1. cancer and long hospitalization and 2. non-cancer and short hospitalization. For implicit self-esteem the phenomenon of implicit compensation of self-esteem was predicted and confi rmed: among cancer-sufferers the Name Letter Effect was greater than among other patients. Also, in the cancerpatients group, the result of Rudman et al. (2007) was replicated: increasing anxiety was connected with increasing implicit self-esteem.

Keywords

EN

anxiety; implicit self-esteem; self-esteem compensation; cancer; hospitalization

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 223-231

Contributors

author

Aleksandra Fila–Jankowska

• University of Social Sciences and Humanities at Sopot, 81-345 Sopot Polna 16/20, Poland Telephone: [phone]

author

Urszula Stachowiak

• University of Social Sciences and Humanities at Sopot