Three conflicts as a result of causal attributions

Herman Ten Kroode, Mieke Oosterwijk and Nardi Steverink

Social Science & Medicine, 1989, vol. 28, issue 1, 93-97

Abstract: There is a difference between the causal attributions of cancer (Ca)-patients and those of myocardial infarction (MI)-patients. MI-patients go through and check their autobiographies looking for the possible causes suggested by the medical world. Ca-patients on the contrary search for possible explanations. This is probably due to the lack of medical knowledge on the cause and course of their disease. They search through their autobiographies and the result is idiosyncratic, very personal attributions with which they create an explanation which is often not in accordance with the physicians' view. These attributions of Ca-patients are a source of conflicts, both within themselves (doubt), with their physicians and with their partners or other close relatives. Nevertheless they stick to their own explanations, although often secretly and with ambivalence, and despite the conflicts which they produce.

Date: 1989
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