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Misconceptions about Stroke: Causal Attributions for Stroke-Related Symptoms Reflect the Age of the Survivor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2017

Charlotte Wainwright ,
John McClure Open the ORCID record for John McClure [Opens in a new window]  and
John McDowall
Charlotte Wainwright
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
John McClure*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
John McDowall
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
*
Address for correspondence: John McClure, School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

With visible disabilities, observers tend to overgeneralise from the disability. In contrast, with invisible disabilities such as traumatic brain injury and stroke, observers often fail to allow for challenges resulting from the disability. Persons who have suffered a stroke claim that people misunderstand their symptoms and stigmatise them as a result of these symptoms. This misunderstanding, which happens particularly with young survivors of stroke, may reflect people's causal attributions for symptoms that follow a stroke. Using a scenario design, this cross-sectional study examined whether people attribute ambiguous symptoms that may result from stroke to other causes (the stroke survivor's personality and age) and whether these attributions reflect the age of the stroke survivor. Participants (N = 120) read scenarios describing a male who was aged either 22, 72, or whose age was unstated and who showed four symptom changes: fatigue, depression, irritability and reduced friendships. For each symptom change, participants rated three causal attributions: the person's age, his personality and stroke. The age of the person in the scenario affected attributions; when the person in the scenario was 22, participants attributed his symptoms significantly more to his personality than to his age or stroke, whereas when he was 72, participants attributed his symptoms more to his age than to his personality or stroke and when his age was unstated, they attributed his symptoms equally to age, stroke and personality. Because misattributions for stroke symptoms hinder rehabilitation, therapy can target people's misattributions to enhance rehabilitation for survivors of stroke.

Keywords

strokeageyoung stroke survivorsinvisible disordersattributionsrehabilitationstigmamisconceptions
Type
Articles
Information
Brain Impairment , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , December 2017 , pp. 299 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment 2017 

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