SOCIAL PERCEPTION OF CANCER AND ITS IMPACT ON THE LIFE QUALITY OF CANCER PATIENTS FROM ROMANIA
Keywords:
cancer, self-construal, life quality, perception of disease, culture, cognitive modelsAbstract
In the case of disease, behaviour is a normative
experience governed by cultural rules. Thus, it is not
surprising that cross-cultural and historical variations
about how diseases have been defined and how people
have adapted to them over time can be traced. The main
objective of this paper is to highlight existing perceptions
about disease among the population with cancer from
Romania and the implications that their perceptions about
the disease increased their life quality. The main factors
on which we focus are: perception of cancer, selfconstrual
and life quality. The results that we expect are:
on the one hand, the perception that the disease is
incurable, with episodes of relapse, that it is strongly
represented on an emotional level and that it lacks
coherence for patients, which all lead to poor adjustment
to the disease and poor life quality. On the other hand,
self-perception of oneself as being independent leads to a
decreased quality of life.
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