The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum

To many, cancer is a life-changing crisis that disrupts the flow of many activities, aspirations, plans, and fulfillment of many individuals. Some orthodox existential and psychological findings testify to how being ridden with cancer may lead to stagnation, hopelessness, pessimism, and a disavowal...

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Main Author: Goh, Yi Xiang
Other Authors: James Patrick Williams
Format: Theses and Dissertations
Language:English
Published: 2017
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69853
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-698532020-10-28T02:02:04Z The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum Goh, Yi Xiang James Patrick Williams School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women To many, cancer is a life-changing crisis that disrupts the flow of many activities, aspirations, plans, and fulfillment of many individuals. Some orthodox existential and psychological findings testify to how being ridden with cancer may lead to stagnation, hopelessness, pessimism, and a disavowal of responsibility towards one's life. However, such findings are contradicted by new findings that suggest that the experience of cancer may lead to adaptation through positive cancer-coping beliefs. Despite this, such new findings involve explanations which are mostly endogenous in nature, examining such growth strictly from the psychological perspective of the individual, while neglecting exogenous factors such as social interactions. In this study, social interactions were found to play a pivotal role on an online cancer support group in facilitating the cancer-coping beliefs of patients from a state of powerlessness and hopelessness upon cancer diagnosis, to a stage of acceptance and embrace of life. To analyse this, various literature in existential sociology and social constructivism have been used to study the exogenous impact of social interactions on the former. Methodologically, the threads and posts of cancer sufferers and survivors on an online cancer support group forum have been studied through qualitative content analysis. Master of Arts (HSS) 2017-03-30T06:16:13Z 2017-03-30T06:16:13Z 2017 Thesis Goh,Y. X. (2017). The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69853 10.32657/10356/69853 en 165 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women
Goh, Yi Xiang
The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
description To many, cancer is a life-changing crisis that disrupts the flow of many activities, aspirations, plans, and fulfillment of many individuals. Some orthodox existential and psychological findings testify to how being ridden with cancer may lead to stagnation, hopelessness, pessimism, and a disavowal of responsibility towards one's life. However, such findings are contradicted by new findings that suggest that the experience of cancer may lead to adaptation through positive cancer-coping beliefs. Despite this, such new findings involve explanations which are mostly endogenous in nature, examining such growth strictly from the psychological perspective of the individual, while neglecting exogenous factors such as social interactions. In this study, social interactions were found to play a pivotal role on an online cancer support group in facilitating the cancer-coping beliefs of patients from a state of powerlessness and hopelessness upon cancer diagnosis, to a stage of acceptance and embrace of life. To analyse this, various literature in existential sociology and social constructivism have been used to study the exogenous impact of social interactions on the former. Methodologically, the threads and posts of cancer sufferers and survivors on an online cancer support group forum have been studied through qualitative content analysis.
author2 James Patrick Williams
author_facet James Patrick Williams
Goh, Yi Xiang
format Theses and Dissertations
author Goh, Yi Xiang
author_sort Goh, Yi Xiang
title The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
title_short The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
title_full The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
title_fullStr The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
title_full_unstemmed The role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
title_sort role of social interactions in learning to cope with cancer : an existential sociological study of an online support group forum
publishDate 2017
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69853
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