Constructed Meaning and Stress in Breast Cancer Experience
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Women give meaning to their experiences with breast cancer in different ways. Ironically, for some women the experience of breast cancer may even take on positive meaning, being perceived as an opportunity for the transformation of life goals and priorities or the strengthening of social relationships. Research involving people with HIV, heart disease, and cancer has shown that finding positive benefits from the illness experience may favorably affect not only subjective experience, but also physiology, immune response, and even health outcomes. This being the case, more knowledge is needed about how experience with breast cancer may give meaning to one's life in a broader sense, the process through which this meaningful construction occurs, and the influence of various psychological, social, and cultural factors on this process.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Four main questions drive this project. First, what are the different types of meanings women derive from their experiences with breast cancer and how do these change through time? Second, what are the processes through which women come to these positive or negative meanings? Third, what are the social, cultural, and psychological patterns of influence upon women who find benefits from their breast cancer experience as opposed to those who do not? Fourth, how do different themes of meaning derived from breast cancer experience correspond to cortisol profiles, a physiological measure of stress and a potential indicator of disease progression? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Forty women seeking treatment for metastatic breast cancer at UCLA will be asked to participate in a series of open-ended interviews done throughout the year. These interviews will focus on how the informant makes meaning of her experience with breast cancer, in particular, how the experience with breast cancer is perceived within the broader context of her life. Following each interview, the women will be asked to collect small saliva samples for the determination of physiological stress response. Naturalistic observations of participants' interactions with physicians, friends, support groups, and others will also be done throughout the study to provide a deeper context and understanding of the informant's experience.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This research is ground-breaking, because although previous research shows finding positive meaning or benefits from a traumatic experience may offer physiological benefits, to date, no such studies have attempted as in-depth a description of the types of meaning, the process of construction of meaning, and the change of meaning and physiological response through time as is proposed in this project. Practically, the insight gained from this research may be applicable to developing therapeutic interventions to encourage the construction of positive reconfigurations of illness experience. In turn, this type of positive meaning-making may benefit the psychological, emotional, and physiological health outcomes of women with breast cancer.