Life Goals (life + goal)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Linking personality states, current social roles and major life goals

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2009
Wiebke BleidornArticle first published online: 23 JUN 200
Abstract Employing an experience-sampling design, the interplay between personality states, social roles and major life goals was examined as it unfolds in the stream of people's daily lives. Multilevel analyses revealed a considerable amount of both within- and between-person variability in state expressions of personality traits justifying further examination of predictors at both levels of analyses. Roles proved as predictors of current personality states albeit effects differed significantly between individuals. Life goals accounted for between-person differences in average personality states but were not effective in predicting differences in relations between personality states and roles. Altogether, findings testify to the viability of the employed research strategy to analyse the interplay between both dispositional and fluctuating influences on individuals' trait expressions in behaviour. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Physical impairment and social adaptation in adult survivors of childhood and adolescent rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivors Study,

PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 1 2007
Judith A. Punyko
Abstract Background: Despite interest in the well-being of adult survivors of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), few studies have examined their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This study evaluated physical and social aspects of HRQOL among long-term childhood RMS survivors relative to a sibling comparison group, and assessed whether physical impairment among RMS survivors adversely affected their ability to achieve adult life goals. Methods: Using baseline data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, we evaluated self-reported physical impairment and social adaptation among 417 survivors of childhood RMS and 2685 siblings ,18 years of age at survey completion. Results: Survivors were more likely than siblings to report physical impairment, characterized by: at least one medically diagnosed condition, limitations in the performance of routine activities, a health-related inability to work or attend school, cancer-related pain. Survivors were less likely than siblings to have completed high school, ever worked a job, or ever been married. The odds of completing high school were lower among survivors with performance limitations, a health-related inability to work or attend school, or moderate to high levels of cancer-related pain. Survivors who reported cancer-related pain had an increased likelihood of ever being married. Conclusions: The majority of adult survivors of pediatric RMS are successful in attaining adult life goals despite higher reported occurrence of physical impairment than their sibling counterparts. Additional studies are needed to advance our understanding of other aspects of HRQOL in this population of pediatric cancer survivors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Three Levels of Exercise Motivation

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: HEALTH AND WELL-BEING, Issue 3 2009
David K. Ingledew
The aim was to test a three-level model of motivation, derived from self-determination theory. According to the model, dispositional motives (represented by life goals) influence participatory motives (exercise participation motives), which influence regulatory motives (exercise behavioural regulations), which influence behaviour (exercise participation). The participants were 251 young adults. They completed the Aspirations Index, Exercise Motivations Inventory version 2, Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire version 2, and a quantity-frequency measure of exercise participation. The model was tested using partial least squares latent variable modelling. Exercise participation was positively predicted by identified and intrinsic but not predicted by external or introjected behavioural regulations. Behavioural regulations were predicted by participation motives: intrinsic regulation by affiliation and challenge motives; identified regulation by health/fitness and stress management motives; introjected regulation by appearance/weight motive; external regulation by social recognition and appearance/weight motives; all positively. Participation motives were themselves predicted by corresponding life goals. The findings support the three-level model of motivation. Health promotion programmes need to take account of individuals' participatory motives and underlying dispositional motives. [source]


RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTROL; ETHICS OF PATIENT PREPARATION FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASE

BIOETHICS, Issue 5 2007
BARBARA K. REDMAN
ABSTRACT Patient self-management (SM) of chronic disease is an evolving movement, with some forms documented as yielding important outcomes. Potential benefits from proper preparation and maintenance of patient SM skills include quality care tailored to the patient's preferences and life goals, and increase in skills in problem solving, confidence and success, generalizable to other parts of the patient's life. Four central ethical issues can be identified: 1) insufficient patient/family access to preparation that will optimize their competence to SM without harm to themselves, 2) lack of acknowledgement that an ethos of patient empowerment can mask transfer of responsibility beyond patient/family competency to handle that responsibility, 3) prevailing assumptions that preparation for SM cannot result in harm and that its main purpose is to deliver physician instructions, and 4) lack of standards for patient selection, which has the potential to exclude individuals who could benefit from learning to SM. Technology assessment offers one framework through which to examine available data about efficacy of patient SM and to answer the central question of what conditions must be put in place to optimize the benefits of SM while assuring that potential harms are controlled. [source]


,Hitting you over the head': Oncologists' disclosure of prognosis to advanced cancer patients

BIOETHICS, Issue 2 2003
Elisa J. Gordon
The disclosure of prognosis to terminally ill patients has emerged as a recent concern given greater demands for patient involvement in medical decision-making in the United States. As part of the informed consent process, American physicians are legally and ethically obligated to provide information to such patients about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of all available treatment options including the use of experimental therapies. Although not legally required, the disclosure of a terminal prognosis is ethically justified because it upholds the principle of self-determination and enables patients to make treatment decisions consistent with their life goals. To understand oncologists' attitudes about disclosing prognostic information to cancer patients with advanced disease, we interviewed fourteen oncologists and conducted one focus group of medical fellows. Although oncologists reported to disclose prognosis in terms of cancer not being curable, they tend to avoid using percentages to convey prognosis. Oncologists' reported reluctance to disclosing prognosis was conveyed through the use of metaphors depicting the perceived violent impact of such information on patients. Oncologists' reluctance to disclose prognosis and preserve patient hope are held in check by their need to ensure that patients have ,realistic expectations' about therapy. We discuss these data in light of the cultural, ethical, and legal dimensions of prognosis disclosure, patient hope and the doctor,patient relationship, and recommend ways to enhance the communication process. [source]


Positive life goals and plans in parasuicide

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY & PRACTICE), Issue 2 2004
Paula J. Vincent
Parasuicidal individuals lack positive expectations about the future. This study set out to examine two aspects of positive future thinking,the ability to think of goals and the presence of cognitions related to achieving those goals, including plans, perceived control and perceived likelihood. Individuals who had recently engaged in an episode of parasuicide (N = 24) were compared with matched, hospital controls (N = 24) on a range of measures to assess number and type of goals, ability to think of plans to achieve goals, sense of control over goal outcomes, and perceived likelihood of achieving goals, as well as self-report measures of hope, hopelessness, depression and anxiety. The two groups did not differ in the number of goals they could identify, especially after controlling for unemployment. The groups did differ in the quality of goals with the parasuicide patients' goals being less specific and more self-focused in important goals, though these effects were confounded by group differences in employment status. Compared to controls, and after controlling for employment, parasuicide patients gave less specific plans, could think of more obstacles to achieving their goals and gave lower ratings of control and likelihood of achieving their goals. Parasuicide patients appear able to think of positive life goals but have clear problems in being able to think of how to achieve those goals.,Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]