Kate Sweeny
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 770691 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Kate Sweeny |
| PRENOMES | Kate |
| SOBRENOME | Sweeny |
| ASSINATURA | SWEENY K |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of California, Riverside |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6653-422X |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 44 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 21 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 44 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2008 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
The Role of Mindfulness in Daily Experiences of Patience and Impatience
When Time Is the Enemy
The process model of patience attempts to reconcile disparate approaches to understanding patience. This investigation provides an initial test of the tenets of this new theoretical model, which positions impatience as a discrete emotion and patience as a targeted form of emotion regulation. In three studies with diverse samples ( N = 1,401; data collected 2022–2023), participants responded to hypothetical scenarios designed to tap into familiar …
Just keep flowing
Flow is the experience of being deeply immersed in an activity, an experience that researchers have embraced as a predictor of well-being. Although research on the beneficial effects of flow is widespread, its multidisciplinary nature has precluded a clear consensus on their nature and strength. Results from a meta-analysis revealed a moderately strong, positive relationship between flow and well-being, consistent with our hypothesis. Features of…
Patiently waiting
Self‐Patience
Pursuing a goal often requires sustained effort and commitment, sometimes for longer than one hoped or expected. When people face delays in achieving their goals, they may become impatient—and when they believe they are the cause of those delays, they may feel impatient with themselves. In this paper, we present a novel theoretical approach to understanding such moments of self‐impatience, adapted from the process model of patience . This approac…
Information-management behavior during stressful waiting periods
In three longitudinal studies, we examined the relationship between worry about an outcome and information-management behavior-specifically seeking and avoiding information about that outcome-in the context of awaiting uncertain news. Study 1 examined a group of U.S. voters across the 4 weeks preceding the 2020 presidential election. Study 2 examined law graduates who completed the California bar exam during the 17 weeks between when they took th…
Alone but flowing
OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Flow, a psychological state of intense engagement in and enjoyment of an activity, can arise during both solitary and socially interactive experiences. In the literature, whereas people high in extraversion have difficulty achieving flow in solitude, those with an autotelic personality-a combination of traits that make people prone to flow-readily experience flow in both solitary and interactive conditions. In this pre-regis…
Examining the causal role of physicians' communication goals in patient outcomes
Past research finds that physicians' communication goals are correlated with patient outcomes. The present work experimentally investigates the effect of five physician communication goals-providing information, encouraging hope, promoting adherence, reducing distress, and increasing satisfaction-on patient outcomes following a hypothetical visit. In an online study, 991 adults watched a video of a physician and imagined they were in an office vi…
Emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being during the wait for breast biopsy results
OBJECTIVE: This study is a replication and extension of previous work examining the well-being of patients at a breast biopsy appointment. Expanding on a previous study, we aim to identify predictors of well-being following the appointment (i.e. waiting for results). DESIGN: = 197) were surveyed at their breast biopsy appointments and then completed daily surveys assessing distress and coping during the week-long wait for results. MAIN OUTCOME ME…
Volatility in Expectations While Awaiting Important News
Waiting for important news is uniquely anxiety provoking, and expectations for one’s outcome fluctuate throughout the wait. Emotional volatility is typically associated with negative outcomes, but little is known about volatility in expectations. In Study 1, law graduates ( N = 248) estimated their chances of passing the bar exam every 2 weeks during the wait for results. Greater volatility in expectations, operationalized as the frequency with w…
Subjective Executive Functioning in Relation to Physical Distancing Compliance
Objectives: In this study, we assessed whether college students' social norm compliance (i. e., COVID-19 physical distancing compliance) predicted executive functioning (EF) after controlling for socioeconomic and mental health factors. Methods: Undergraduate students (N=302; age ≥ 18 years) from the University of California, Riverside participated in the study by completing an online survey assessing subjective EF, mental health (loneliness, dep…
Let the Kid Speak
Communication in healthcare represents the complex interplay between multiple individual and contextual factors unfolding over the course of the medical encounter. Despite significant improvements in patient-centered care delivery, studies of health communication typically focus exclusively on clinical interactions between adult patients and their clinicians. Much less is known about non-dyadic interactions, such as pediatric triads involving a c…
Religiosity as a predictor of worry during stressful periods of uncertainty
Strategy Specific Support During Uncertain Waiting Periods
Uncertainty over what the future holds can be a source of anxiety and worry, and people use a variety of coping strategies in response to this distress. However, limited research has examined whether and how interpersonal factors might influence how exactly people choose to cope with uncertainty. In the current studies, we explore how perceptions of a romantic partner's strategy-specific support behaviors (e.g., support for bracing for the worst,…
Preparing Silver Linings for a Cloudy Day
Waiting for important news is stressful. In four studies, we assess the utility of preemptive benefit finding, a coping strategy in which people seek silver linings in bad news before receiving news, for emotional well-being across several waiting periods (waiting for bar exam results, the outcome of political elections, and results of a fictitious health risk assessment). Our findings support the effectiveness of preemptive benefit finding while…
The role of uncertainty, worry, and control in well-being
Uncertainty about the future often leads to worries about what the future will bring, which can have negative consequences for health and well-being. However, if worry can act as a motivator to promote efforts to prevent undesirable future outcomes, those negative consequences of worry may be mitigated. In this article, we apply a novel model of uncertainty, worry, and perceived control to predict psychological and physical well-being among four …
Outcomes of Physicians’ Communication Goals During Patient Interactions
During healthcare visits, physicians may set communication goals such as providing their patient with information about treatment; however, no recommendations exist regarding which goals physicians should prioritize during their often-brief interactions with patients. Two studies examined five communication goals (providing information, reducing distress, increasing patient satisfaction, increasing patient adherence, and encouraging hope) in the …
International optimism
OBJECTIVE: The current exploratory study sought to examine dispositional optimism, or the general expectation for positive outcomes, around the world. METHOD: Dispositional optimism and possible correlates were assessed across 61 countries (N = 15,185; mean age = 21.92; 77% female). Mean-level differences in optimism were computed along with their relationships with individual and country-level variables. RESULTS: Worldwide, mean optimism levels …
Common Academic Experiences No One Talks About
Academic life is full of learning, excitement, and discovery. However, academics also experience professional challenges at various points in their career, including repeated rejection, impostor syndrome, and burnout. These negative experiences are rarely talked about publicly, creating a sense of loneliness and isolation for people who presume they are the only ones affected by such setbacks. However, nearly everyone has these experiences at one…
Narrating the nadir
Objective: To investigate low point autobiographical narratives among cancer survivors and romantic partners.Design: Cancer survivors (Study 1) and romantic partners (Study 2) narrated the low points of their cancer experiences. Partners also narrated stories of cancer survivors’ low points. Narratives were coded for their manifest content, as well as redemption (negative-to-positive arc), contamination (positive-to-negative arc), and tone (posit…
Health behavior during periods of stressful uncertainty
Objective: The present study examined how cognitions and emotions characteristic of awaiting uncertain news influenced healthy (diet/exercise) and unhealthy (alcohol use) behaviors in three samples of people awaiting important news.Design: Study 1 examined voting-eligible citizens during the month prior to learning the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Study 2 examined the experience of law graduates across four months while they aw…
Social support during stressful waiting periods
Salient selves in uncertain futures
We examined possible selves during three distinct periods of uncertainty. Cancer survivors (Study 1a) and survivors’ romantic partners (Study 1b) rated the salience of possible selves in which the cancer did (negative possible self; NPS) and did not (positive possible self; PPS) return. Study 2 mapped PPS and NPS salience throughout the four-month wait for bar exam results. Study 3 experimentally primed possible selves among participants awaiting…
The Role of Gender in Worry and Efforts to Cope during Stressful Waiting Periods
A better distraction
A worrisome period of uncertainty frequently precedes important life events, and many of the coping strategies people employ during such waiting periods are ineffective. Distraction can be efficacious, but individuals awaiting uncertain news often fail to lose themselves in a sufficiently diverting activity. Across three studies-two observational and one experimental-we test whether flow-inducing activities provide a better distraction and improv…
Waiting for a baby
Crisis decision theory
How do people respond to negative life events? Crisis decision theory combines the strengths of coping theories with research on decision making to predict the responses people choose under negative circumstances. The theory integrates literatures on coping, health behavior, and decision making, among others, into 3 stages that describe the process of responding to negative events: (a) assessing the severity of the negative event, (b) determining…
Mapping individual differences in the experience of a waiting period
Waiting for uncertain news, such as the outcome of a job interview or medical test, is a ubiquitous and difficult but little studied experience. We conducted a longitudinal examination, guided by the predictions of the uncertainty navigation model (Sweeny & Cavanaugh, 2012), to examine broad trends and individual differences in experiences during a consequential waiting period. Fifty students preparing for the California bar exam completed questi…
Perceptions of romantic partners’ responsiveness during a period of stressful uncertainty
Whether awaiting biopsy results, a grade on a midterm, or a decision from a journal editor, people feel distressed as they wait for uncertain news. In the present study, we investigated how people's perceptions of their romantic partner, specifically their partner's responsiveness to their support needs, corresponds with key aspects of the waiting experience. In a longitudinal study of 184 law students awaiting their result on the California bar …
Alone but flowing
OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Flow, a psychological state of intense engagement in and enjoyment of an activity, can arise during both solitary and socially interactive experiences. In the literature, whereas people high in extraversion have difficulty achieving flow in solitude, those with an autotelic personality-a combination of traits that make people prone to flow-readily experience flow in both solitary and interactive conditions. In this pre-regis…
Strategy Specific Support During Uncertain Waiting Periods
Uncertainty over what the future holds can be a source of anxiety and worry, and people use a variety of coping strategies in response to this distress. However, limited research has examined whether and how interpersonal factors might influence how exactly people choose to cope with uncertainty. In the current studies, we explore how perceptions of a romantic partner's strategy-specific support behaviors (e.g., support for bracing for the worst,…
Disrupted Transition to Parenthood
Clinician styles of care
A key role of clinicians is to motivate their patients to initiate and maintain beneficial health behaviors. This article integrates research on transformational leadership, clinician-patient communication, and health behavior to introduce a novel approach to understanding and improving clinicians' effectiveness as motivators. We describe three dominant clinician styles or patterned approaches to patient care that derive from leadership theory (i…
Exploring Causes of the Self‐serving Bias
The self‐serving bias refers to a tendency for people to take personal responsibility for their desirable outcomes yet externalize responsibility for their undesirable outcomes. We review a variety of explanations for this attribution bias. Although researchers have historically pitted cognitive and motivational explanations for the self‐serving bias against one another, cognitive and motivation processes often work in tandem to lead people to co…
Crisis decision theory
How do people respond to negative life events? Crisis decision theory combines the strengths of coping theories with research on decision making to predict the responses people choose under negative circumstances. The theory integrates literatures on coping, health behavior, and decision making, among others, into 3 stages that describe the process of responding to negative events: (a) assessing the severity of the negative event, (b) determining…
Information Avoidance
Although acquiring information can provide numerous benefits, people often opt to remain ignorant. We define information avoidance as any behavior designed to prevent or delay the acquisition of available but potentially unwanted information. We review the various literatures that examine information avoidance and provide a unique framework to integrate the contributions of these disparate areas of research. We first define information avoidance …
The costs of optimism and the benefits of pessimism
Research suggests that optimism feels good. However, does it always feel good? We suggest that the benefits (and costs) of optimism and pessimism depend on their timing. A study of exam score estimates revealed that, after controlling for actual exam performance, optimistic expectations are unrelated to how people feel immediately before feedback, in contrast to the common wisdom that optimism "feels good." Furthermore, optimism has costs after f…
Predictors of Information Avoidance
People frequently face unknown information that has the potential to threaten their views of themselves or others. Two studies investigated the predictors of information avoidance in the context of a romantic relationship (Study 1) and ratings of physical attractiveness (Study 2). Results revealed that compared to information seekers, information avoiders tended to expect greater benefits and fewer costs from the information, anticipate less regr…
The goals of communicating bad news in health care
Background Communicating bad news serves different goals in health care, and the extent to which physicians and patients agree on the goals of these conversations may influence their process and outcomes. However, we know little about what goals physicians and patients perceive as important and how the perceptions of physicians and patients compare. Objective To compare physicians’ and patients’ perceptions of the importance of different communic…
Sobering up
Although people's outlook on the future tends to be characterized by hope and optimism, over time this outlook often becomes more dire. We review multiple theoretical accounts of this tendency to "sober up" as feedback about outcomes draws near, and we explicate factors critical to promoting these temporal declines in expectations. We then meta-analytically test the impact of these factors on temporal shifts in people's expectations about self-re…
Mapping individual differences in the experience of a waiting period
Waiting for uncertain news, such as the outcome of a job interview or medical test, is a ubiquitous and difficult but little studied experience. We conducted a longitudinal examination, guided by the predictions of the uncertainty navigation model (Sweeny & Cavanaugh, 2012), to examine broad trends and individual differences in experiences during a consequential waiting period. Fifty students preparing for the California bar exam completed questi…
Clinician styles of care
A key role of clinicians is to motivate their patients to initiate and maintain beneficial health behaviors. This article integrates research on transformational leadership, clinician-patient communication, and health behavior to introduce a novel approach to understanding and improving clinicians' effectiveness as motivators. We describe three dominant clinician styles or patterned approaches to patient care that derive from leadership theory (i…
Patients' anxiety and hope
CONTEXT: Good patient-provider interactions promote satisfaction with health care, adherence to treatment recommendations and improved health. However, little research has examined patients' emotions and how they relate to patients' experiences with health care and their adherence intentions in acute care settings. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the predictors and consequences of two emotions pertinent to the uncertainty of acute health-care expe…
Expectations in the context of gallbladder and hernia surgery
OBJECTIVE: Patients' expectations predict important health outcomes. The goal of this study is to describe the types of expectations that hernia and gallbladder patients have for the outcomes of their surgery and to identify relationships between these expectations and both patient- and surgeon-reported variables. DESIGN: Patients (N = 143) at an out-patient surgery clinic completed self-report questionnaires before and after a pre-surgical consu…
Two definitions of waiting well
Waiting for uncertain news is often distressing, at times even more distressing than facing bad news. The goal of this article was to investigate strategies for "waiting well" during these periods of uncertainty. Specifically, we propose 2 definitions of waiting well. First, people can wait in such a way as to ease their distress during the waiting period. Second, people could wait in such a way as to ease the pain of bad news or enhance the thri…
Disrupted Transition to Parenthood
Waiting for a baby
A situational construal approach to healthcare experiences
Even Optimists Get the Blues
OBJECTIVE: The present research examined whether the tendency to brace for the worst by becoming pessimistic as news approaches varies across people, namely, people who differ in their trait-like outlooks on the future (dispositional optimism, defensive pessimism). METHOD: Across nine studies in laboratory and field settings, we examined the roles of dispositional optimism and defensive pessimism in the propensity to brace for the worst when awai…
Hot or not? How self-view threat influences avoidance of attractiveness feedback
In two studies, we examined whether people’s decision to receive evaluations of their own attractiveness depended on whether the evaluations came from sources that might threaten their self-views. Participants believed that evaluators rated their attractiveness based on a photograph taken earlier and ostensibly uploaded to a website. Participants then received the opportunity to view the attractiveness ratings from the evaluators. In both studies…
A better distraction
A worrisome period of uncertainty frequently precedes important life events, and many of the coping strategies people employ during such waiting periods are ineffective. Distraction can be efficacious, but individuals awaiting uncertain news often fail to lose themselves in a sufficiently diverting activity. Across three studies-two observational and one experimental-we test whether flow-inducing activities provide a better distraction and improv…
Perceptions of romantic partners’ responsiveness during a period of stressful uncertainty
Whether awaiting biopsy results, a grade on a midterm, or a decision from a journal editor, people feel distressed as they wait for uncertain news. In the present study, we investigated how people's perceptions of their romantic partner, specifically their partner's responsiveness to their support needs, corresponds with key aspects of the waiting experience. In a longitudinal study of 184 law students awaiting their result on the California bar …
Transformational leadership in primary care
Clinicians face the complex challenge of motivating their patients to achieve optimal health while also ensuring their satisfaction. Inspired by transformational leadership theory, we proposed that clinicians' motivational behaviors can be organized into three patient care styles (transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidant) and that these styles differentially predict patient health outcomes. In two studies using patient-reported data …
Salient selves in uncertain futures
We examined possible selves during three distinct periods of uncertainty. Cancer survivors (Study 1a) and survivors’ romantic partners (Study 1b) rated the salience of possible selves in which the cancer did (negative possible self; NPS) and did not (positive possible self; PPS) return. Study 2 mapped PPS and NPS salience throughout the four-month wait for bar exam results. Study 3 experimentally primed possible selves among participants awaiting…
The Role of Gender in Worry and Efforts to Cope during Stressful Waiting Periods
Common Academic Experiences No One Talks About
Academic life is full of learning, excitement, and discovery. However, academics also experience professional challenges at various points in their career, including repeated rejection, impostor syndrome, and burnout. These negative experiences are rarely talked about publicly, creating a sense of loneliness and isolation for people who presume they are the only ones affected by such setbacks. However, nearly everyone has these experiences at one…
Narrating the nadir
Objective: To investigate low point autobiographical narratives among cancer survivors and romantic partners.Design: Cancer survivors (Study 1) and romantic partners (Study 2) narrated the low points of their cancer experiences. Partners also narrated stories of cancer survivors’ low points. Narratives were coded for their manifest content, as well as redemption (negative-to-positive arc), contamination (positive-to-negative arc), and tone (posit…
Health behavior during periods of stressful uncertainty
Objective: The present study examined how cognitions and emotions characteristic of awaiting uncertain news influenced healthy (diet/exercise) and unhealthy (alcohol use) behaviors in three samples of people awaiting important news.Design: Study 1 examined voting-eligible citizens during the month prior to learning the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Study 2 examined the experience of law graduates across four months while they aw…
Psychology (39 obras) · Social Psychology (30 obras) · Clinical Psychology (18 obras) · Medicine (15 obras) · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being (15 obras) · Social Psychology (15 obras) · Psychiatry (13 obras) · Anxiety (12 obras) · Developmental psychology (12 obras) · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research (10 obras)