A reflecxive note:
Lately i was contemplating on studies employing 'sensitive group' at my local cultural setting. It leads me to explore some literature regarding illness trauma & emotion in different discipline studies : Healthcare (including psychology), Communication, LIS etc.
Schroevers & Teo (2008) conducted a study with 113 respondents of Malaysian cancer patients usinga brief COPE Symptom Check List. In the concluding report, the researchers suggested that posttraumatic growth is not only a Western phenomenon, the findings of their respondents showed similar trends as well as in its correlates as their Western counterparts (p.1239). On the other hand, It is interesting to note as early as in the late 1980s, it was observed a growing researchers from several disciplines were investigating why talking or writing about emotional uphealvals can influence mental and physical health in the western culture (Pannebaker, 1995), the researcher summarized "within western culture, the disclosure of traumatic and emotional experiences can promote physical and psychological health" (p.8).
In addition, it has been found many of the Internet resources of health, illness & wellness (in English) in the WWW includes the social aspects of therapies - support groups, real-time chat facilities, personal inspirational story sharing in healing journey, blogs etc. - augment of the Web 2.0 technologies features.
my question: But how many studies have conducted the disclosure communities of chronic disease in Asian countries? - probably this may be a good bibliometric studies topic.
Lately i read an article in
Health & Beauty Magazine, Malaysia "
Living with HIV / AIDS" (December 2010, p.32). i was very amzaed by the courage of the interviewee who disclosed herself and shared her thoughts and experience 'publicly' in this topic regarded 'taboo' by the writer - which i do agree in local cultural setting which can be perceived 'personal sensitive information'. From the article, i figured out that the courage of the interviewee has many supportive factors, one of them is living with the reality of "HIV positive status" does not become the "centre of her identity", observed the writer.
Long ago a good friend who is a computer scientist told me that he did not put all his eggs in one basket, probably this is another analogy to describe how to deal with or prevent life experience being traumatic?
References:
1) Schroevers, M.J. & Teo, I (2008). The report of posttraumatic growth in Malaysian cancer patients: relationships with psychological distress and coping strategies.
Psycho-Oncology, 17, 1239-1246.
2) Pannebaker, J.W. (1995). Emotion, disclosure, and health: An overview. In: J..W. Pannebaker (ed.),
Emotion, disclosure, & health, pp. 3 -10,Washing, DC: APA.
3) Chng, J. (Dec. 2010).
Living with HIV/ AIDS. Health & Beauty Magazine, Selangor: Happy Lifestyle Sdn. Bhd.
March 5, 2011 at 0155hrs - this remains a question :)-D)
