Empathic concern: Distinguishing between tenderness and sympathy.

The present research proposes that empathic concern, as assessed by six items of the ERQ, consists of two separate emotions, i.e., tenderness and sympathy.

Impact of social comparison on cancer survivors' quality of life: an experimental field study.

Objective: For cancer survivors, the recovery phase after hospital treatment can be bothersome. Social comparison information from fellow cancer survivors can improve the quality of life in this situation.

Method: In a randomized field experiment, 139 Dutch cancer survivors (M(age) = 52 years; 70.

Patients' perceptions and illness severity at start of antidepressant treatment in general practice.

Objectives: Patients' perceptions are important to consider when trying to understand why patients often do not follow prescriptions for antidepressant treatment. This study aimed to investigate the influence of patients' perceptions and illness severity at the start on antidepressant-medication-taking behaviour.

Methods: Eighteen community pharmacies in the Netherlands participated in this 6-month follow-up study.

On models and vases: body dissatisfaction and proneness to social comparison effects.

When and why do media-portrayed physically attractive women affect perceivers' self-evaluations? In 6 studies, the authors showed that whether such images affect self-evaluations depends jointly on target features and perceiver features. In Study 1, exposure to a physically attractive target, compared with exposure to an equally attractive model, lowered women's self-evaluations. Study 2 showed that body-dissatisfied women, to a greater extent than body-satisfied women, report that they compare their bodies with other women's bodies.

Long-term effects of nutritional group education for persons at high cardiovascular risk.

Background: Treatment of persons at high risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) should include nutritional counselling, but little is known about the effects of different types of education.

Methods: In a quasi-experimental study design the effects of a nutritional education programme (1st year: three group sessions by a dietitian; 2nd year: one group session; 3rd year: additional focus on saturated fat; reinforcement by written nutritional messages annually) (intervention group; n=103) are compared with the effects of a posted leaflet containing standard dietary guidelines (control group; n=163). Participants had hypercholesterolemia (6-8 mmol/l) and at least two other CHD risk factors.