AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SPECIFICS OF EXPERIENCE OF TIME AND THE EMOTIONAL ATTITUDE TO THE DISEASE OF PATIENTS WITH CANCER

Abstract

Modern oncopsychology has a fairly broad evidence base of the results of scientiĘc studies of the clinical and psychological characteristics of patients with cancer at dişerent stages of the disease. However, these results are not always consistent with each other. In this regard, the search for new methods and techniques to alleviate psychological distress of patients with cancer does not cease to be relevant.Ɗe intensity of emotions can weaken or increase, the emotions themselves can alternate, with the fact of their presence in a person’s life being unchanged. Ɗe desire to regain peace and control over the situation is one of the most frequent requests in the psychological work with cancer patients. One of the strategies for dealing with such requests may be the formation of an adequate emotional response of the patient to a somatic disease, such as cancer, by optimizing the time orientations at different stages of the disease, transforming the perception of the past, future, present and psychological time in general.Ɗe article discusses theoretical approaches to the study of psychological time and reveals the speciĘcs of perception of time by a person at the critical stages of his life. Special attention is paid to the perception of psychological time by cancer patients at dişerent stages of the disease. Psychological characteristics of cancer patients at the initial and late stages of the disease are analyzed. A program of empirical study of the psychological time of cancer patients at dişerent stages of the disease was developed and tested (according to the methods of the Cyclical Time Test by T. Cottle, Time Perspective Inventory by F. Zimbardo, the methodology Scales of Time Experience by E. I. Golovakha, A. A. Kronik, the color test of relations (CTR) by A. M. Etkind). Ɗe results of the scientiĘc study showed that the experience of psychological time, including temporal orientation, in cancer patients at different stages of the disease is associated with the emotional coloring of the disease. Themaladaptive attitude towards the disease in cancer patients is characterized by a negative perception of time in general, and a dispirited and depressed state prevails in them. Patients with a more harmonious type of attitude toward their illness combine positive characteristics of a relationship to a temporary continuum with an orientation toward the future.