ABSTRACT

This study uses social identity theory and communication accommodation theory as lenses to examine former cancer patients’ perspectives of the “survivor” label, replacement labels for their experience, and use of survivor services. Semi-structured interviews of 43 former cancer patients offer insight into their unique cancer experiences and explain how these events influence their perceptions of the term survivor. Coders used constant comparison methods to capture six themes related to the participants’ impressions of the survivor label. When sharing perceptions of the survivor label, participants expressed language that illustrated convergence (It means everything to me), divergence (I don’t like to be called anything), convergence and divergence (Part of me is happy … Part of me is kind of aggravated), and apathy (I have no feelings toward the label). Participants also generated new labels that captured their cancer experiences and six unique themes emerged from these responses. Most of the former cancer patients were aware of survivorship programs; however, relatively few used these programs regularly and cited reasons for nonuse explained by social identity theory.

摘要

本研究使用社会认同理论和沟通调节理论作为镜头来检查前癌症患者对“幸存者”标签的看法、他们的经历的替代标签以及幸存者服务的使用。对 43 名前癌症患者的半结构化访谈提供了他们独特的癌症经历的见解，并解释了这些事件如何影响他们对幸存者一词的看法。编码人员使用不断比较的方法来捕捉与参与者对幸存者标签的印象相关的六个主题。在分享幸存者标签的看法时，参与者表达的语言说明了趋同（这对我来说意味着一切）、分歧（我不喜欢被称为任何东西）、趋同和分歧（我的一部分是快乐的……我的一部分是有点生气）和冷漠（我对这个标签没有感觉）。参与者还生成了新的标签来捕捉他们的癌症经历，并且从这些反应中出现了六个独特的主题。大多数以前的癌症患者都知道生存计划。然而，很少有人经常使用这些程序，并列举了社会认同理论解释的不使用原因。