Psychosocial Risk Factors for Upper Respiratory Infection: Self-Monitoring, Self-Consciousness, and Symptom Report Accuracy
Abstract
Symptom measures are widely used in health research, including that dealing with upper respiratory illness (URI), so improving the accuracy and validity of symptom reports would improve the quality of research results in this area. This study tested the hypotheses that sensitivity to internal states and feelings, i.e., self-consciousness, would increase symptom report accuracy, while the tendency to modify reports of attitudes and feelings in response to external social cues, ie., self-monitoring, would decrease symptom-report accuracy. Support for the self-monitoring hypothesis was provided in an initial study that showed stronger URI-health history associations among low self-monitors than among high self-monitors, but this finding did not replicate in a second study. No support for the self-consciousness hypothesis was found. These negative findings were consistent with the results of prior tests for other types of interactions as predictors of URI. To date, the evidence indicates that URI risk profile can be constructed of purely additive main effects of health history and personality measures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 05, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA200572
Entities
People
- Linda K. Hervig
- Ross R. Vickers
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center