Beliefs about illness causality among preschoolers with cancer: evidence against immanent justice.
Evaluated whether preschoolers with cancer are more or less likely than their healthy counterparts to consider illness a form of punishment for misdeeds (immanent justice). It was found that a sample of preschoolers with cancer (n = 17) rejected immanent justice as a general cause of illness, both in themselves and in others, just as frequently as healthy controls (n = 17). Both groups also rejected immanent justice in cases where misbehavior was prolonged. Children with cancer demonstrated a view of illness causality based on greater differentiation between themselves and other people, in that they were more likely than healthy controls to accept immanent justice as a cause of illness in themselves but not others, and vice versa. Finally, nearly all of the children with cancer who accepted immanent justice as a general cause of illness in themselves also attributed their cancer specifically to immanent justice.
Springer
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Southern Methodist University, Department of Psychology, Dallas, Texas 75275-0442.
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000523:psychology*; D011678:Punishment; D012649:Self Concept; D012803:Sick Role