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Direct and Indirect Strategies of Mobilization as Determinants of Social Support Provided for Cancer Patients 1
Author(s) -
Winkeler Markus,
Filipp SigrunHeide,
Aymanns Peter
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00060.x
Subject(s) - rumination , psychology , coping (psychology) , distress , social support , social psychology , emotional distress , emotional support , coping behavior , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , developmental psychology , anxiety , cognition , psychiatry
Social support must often be mobilized actively from network members by using communicative strategies. Direct strategies are characterized by communicative clearness and imply an offer of some type of relationship toward the potential support provider. This might be especially important when cancer patients portray their own coping in ruminative ways that cause distress in others. Male and female participants ( N =189) read descriptions of an encounter with a cancer patient (protagonist). The directness of mobilization and the protagonist's coping portrayal were manipulated between participants. Action tendencies toward sustained support, short‐term encouragement, and the intensity of specific emotions were dependent variables. In the condition of a coping portrayal with rumination, participants showed higher tendencies toward momentary encouragement than sustained support. Explicit (compared to implicit) requests of support mostly reduced participants' fear of becoming distressed themselves and compensated the deteriorating effects of a ruminative coping portrayal on participants' sustained support.