The Psychology of Physical Symptoms

1 Introduction and Overview.- Boundary Conditions Surrounding Symptom Reporting.- Demographic and Cultural Comparisons.- Experimental and Theoretical Approaches.- Plan of This Book.- 2 Perceptual Processes I: Competition of Cues.- The Perceptual Process.- Orienting and Competition of Cues.- Concluding Remarks.- 3 Perceptual Processes II: Schemas, Selective Search, and Inference.- Selective Monitoring of Specific Sensations.- Selective Monitoring of Categorical or Higher Order Body States.- Inference of Physical Symptoms.- Generality of Schema-Directed Search.- Implications and Conclusions.- 4 Accuracy of Perception Relative to Physiological State.- Measurement of Accuracy: Between-Subjects Versus Within-Subject Approaches.- Situational and Dispositional Factors and Accuracy.- Is Accuracy Unidimensional?.- Conclusions and Future Directions Concerning Accuracy.- 5 Cognitive Organization I: Emotions.- Symptoms and Emotions: Perceptual Specificity.- Causal and Temporal Relationships Between Symptoms and Emotions.- Physiological Search for the Symptom-Emotion Link.- Toward an Understanding of the Emotion-Symptom Link.- Summary.- 6 Cognitive Organization II: Blood Pressure and Blood Glucose.- Blood Pressure and Blood Glucose Research Projects.- Bases of Cognitive Organization: Through the Looking Glass.- Conclusions and Implications.- 7 Personality and Developmental Correlates.- Measurement and Construct Validity of Symptom Reporting.- Personality Correlates of Symptom Reporting.- Habits and Daily Behaviors of the Symptom Reporter.- Developmental Issues in Symptom Reporting.- Composite Picture of the Symptom Reporter.- 8 Summary and Conclusions.- Adaptive and Functional Bases of Symptoms.- Applications of Symptom Research.- Current Problems and Future Directions.- Appendix A Symptom/Emotion Checklist: A State Measure.- Sample Symptom-Emotion Checklist.- Measurement Parameters of Checklist.- Appendix B The PILL: A Trait Measure.- The Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness.- Measurement Parameters of the PILL.- References.- Author Index.