Table 1.
List and Definition of Psychological Constructs Identified by the Systematic Literature Review from Russo et al13 and the Panel of Experts. They are Reported in Alphabetic Order
| Construct | Description of Construct |
|---|---|
| Anxiety | A distinction between state and trait anxiety has become commonplace.14,15 State anxiety is defined as an unpleasant emotional arousal in face of threatening demands or dangers. A cognitive appraisal of threat is a prerequisite for the experience of this emotion.16 Trait anxiety, on the other hand, reflects the existence of stable individual differences in the tendency to respond with state anxiety in the anticipation of threatening situations. |
| Assertiveness | Assertiveness is a proactive response in difficult situations to contrast with passive or aggressive reactions.17 |
| Autonomy preference | Autonomy is self-governance over decisions; a decision or choice of action is considered autonomous if it comes from within and is free from external control or influence.18,19 Thus, autonomy preference reflects patient’s preference for self-governance in medical care. |
| Behavioural inhibition and activation | Behavioural inhibition system and the behavioural approach system are two general motivational systems that underlie behaviour. The behavioural approach system is believed to regulate appetitive motives, in which the goal is to move toward objectives and something desired. A behavioural avoidance (or inhibition) system is said to regulate aversive motives, in which the goal is to move away from something unpleasant.20 |
| Conservatism | Conservatism is defined as the disposition to preserve tradition and established institutions and resist and oppose to change.21 |
| Control preference | Control preference reflects patient’s preferred level of their own versus their physician’s control or a collaborative role over a treatment decision.22 |
| Coping style | Coping style is defined as the habitual pattern of individuals when reacting to stress either across different situations or over time.23 |
| Decision-making styles | Decision-making style is the habitual pattern individuals use in decision-making, or characteristic mode of perceiving and responding to decision-making tasks.24,25 |
| Depression | Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behaviour, feelings, and sense of well-being.26 |
| Dispositional optimism | Dispositional optimism is defined as generalized expectancy for positive future events.27 |
| Health anxiety | Health anxiety is defined as a worry about physical health and can range from mild concern to severe or persistent anxiety such as that found in hypochondriasis.26 |
| Health literacy | Health literacy is the patient’s ability to read, understand and use healthcare information appropriately.28 |
| Health locus of control | Health locus of control is defined as a generalized expectation about whether one’s health is controlled by one’s own behaviour or forces external to oneself.29 An individual with an internal locus of control believes that outcomes are a direct result of his or her own behaviour. An individual with an external locus of control believes that outcomes are a result of either chance or powerful other people, such as physicians. |
| Health numeracy | Health numeracy refers to the patient’s ability to apply and manipulate numerical concepts in the healthcare context.30,31 |
| Health orientation | Health orientation is an individual-differences concept defined as an individual’s motivation to engage in healthy attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours.32 |
| Illness perception | Illness perception is defined as patients’ own implicit and common-sense beliefs about their illness.33 |
| Mastery | Mastery motivation has been defined as a psychological force that stimulates an individual to attempt independently, in a focused and persistent manner, to solve a problem or master a skill or task which is at least moderately challenging for him or her.34 |
| Mood states | In contrast to emotion mood is defined as a transient, low-intensity, nonspecific, and subtle affective state that often has no definite cause.35 |
| Need for closure | The need for cognitive closure is conceptualized as a cognitive-motivational factor that underlies how laypersons approach and form their knowledge about the social world.36 Need for closure varies along a continuum with one end representing a need to attain cognitive closure and the other end representing a need to avoid cognitive closure. People with high need for closure can be described as having a preference for quick decision-making, predictability, structure, and low tolerance for ambiguity. Individuals with a low need for closure prefer variety, flexibility, uncertainty, and slow decision-making. |
| Need for cognition | Need for cognition refers to peoples “tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors.”37 Individuals with a high need for cognition enjoy the thinking process, are motivated to apply their thinking skills and are more likely to be able to process and systematize information.38 |
| Patient Activation | Patient activation refers to the degree to which an individual has knowledge, motivation, skills, and confidence to make effective health-related decisions.39 |
| Personality | Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behaviour and thought.40 |
| Psychological well-being | Psychological well-being is defined as a combination of several aspects of positive psychological functioning, which includes self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth.41 |
| Rational and experiential thinking styles | Rational and experiential thinking styles are habitual pattern of information processing.42 While the rational style emphasizes a conscious and analytical approach, the experiential style emphasizes a pre-conscious and a more affective approach. |
| Resilience | Resilience is defined as the process of adapting well in facing traumas, adversities, threats, tragedies, and sources of stress.43 |
| Risk propensity | Risk propensity is described as a function of the person’s perception of risk and the person’s willingness to take on this risk.44 |
| Self-efficacy | Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to master the cognitive, motivational, and behavioural resources required to perform a specific action in a given situation.45 |
| Sensation Seeking | Sensation seeking is defined as the seeking of various, novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experience.46 |
| Sense of coherence | The sense of coherence is a construct that refers to the extent to which one sees one’s world as comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful.47 |
| Social support | Social support is defined as a “social network’s provision of psychological and material resources intended to benefit an individual’s ability to cope with stress”.48 |
| Treatment-related beliefs | Treatment-related beliefs are defined as the specific patient’s perception of the need to take medication and concerns about it as well as the general beliefs about pharmacotherapy.49 |
Note: Psychological constructs proposed by experts which supplement the list of the systematic review from Russo et al13 are indicated in bold.