scholarly journals Sense of Coherence and Health. The Construction of an Amendment to Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC II)

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2133-2139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Aaron Antonovsky

In two previous papers, we concluded that (1) the sense of coherence (SOC) scale developed by Aaron Antonovsky (1923—1994) is unable to prove the association between SOC and the physical health empirically and (2) the SOC scale is unlikely to be a fair materialization of Antonovsky’s idea and, thus, unlikely to measure SOC correctly. In order to improve the scale, we developed some new questions that we suggest should be incorporated in a new questionnaire and scale (SOC II) derived directly from Antonovsky's idea and the three key explanatory concepts of SOC: comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. We hope that this new scale will demonstrate a stronger correlation between SOC and physical health.

scholarly journals Sense of Coherence and Physical Health. A “Copenhagen Interpretation” of Antonovsky's SOC Concept

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 451-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Christian Endler ◽  
Thomas M. Haug ◽  
Heinz Spranger
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Physical Health Status ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
Aaron Antonovsky ◽  
Possible Cause

According to Antonovsky's (Aaron Antonovsky, 1923–1994) sense of coherence (SOC) model, persons with a high SOC have the ability to benefit from their general defense mechanisms in order to overcome stressful situations. In a health-disease continuum, this leads to the development towards health. However, Antonovsky's global hypothesis that the strength of the SOC may influence the physical health status of a person could not be proven.Flensborg-Madsen et al. from Copenhagen were able to provide a new access regarding SOC and health. They investigated the mixture of emotional aspects and mental constructions as a possible cause for fairly low correlation between SOC and physical health. Thus, in an empirical way, they described “emotional coherence” in relation to physical health, while “mental coherence” was linked topsychologicalhealth. These authors introduced the idea of applying a shortened version of the original 29-item SOC questionnaire, but have not yet developed or tested the shortened questionnaire. Backed by their important findings, it appears to be promising to consider the use of the SOC questionnaire as standardized by Antonovsky, but cleared of the items regarding “predictability”, i.e., Flensborg-Madsen et al. suggested that the items on “predictability” be excluded from the SOC scale when a correlation to physical health is to be investigated. Further investigations in this area of research will be of high impact, not only for health sciences, but also for medical practice.

scholarly journals Sense of Coherence and Physical Health. The Emotional Sense of Coherence (SOC-E) was Found to be the Best-Known Predictor of Physical Health

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2147-2157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Correlation Matrix ◽  
Aaron Antonovsky

In this study, we created a measure for emotionality named the emotional sense of coherence (SOC-E). We found that SOC-E was significantly associated with physical health (r = 0.266;p< 0.05), while it was not significantly associated with psychological health (r = 0.006; NS). Based on a correlation matrix, we constructed a new scale, the SOC-E II, which was even better associated with physical health (r = 0.362) and also associated with psychological health (r = 0.259;p< 0.01). Our results showed that SOC-E and SOC-E II were better predictors of physical health than the SOC scales developed by Aaron Antonovsky (1923–1994) (SOC-29 and SOC-13). We conclude that emotional coherence is important for physical health, but it is not important in the same way for psychological health. In a previous study, we found that a mental operationalization of Antonovsky's sense of coherence was highly associated with psychological health and not associated with physical health. Based on these two studies, we conclude that physical health is primarily associated with emotions, while psychological health is primarily associated with mentality.

scholarly journals Sense of Coherence and Physical Health. A Review of Previous Findings

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 665-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Psychological Measures ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Behavioural Aspects ◽  
Aaron Antonovsky

The aim of this paper is to systematically review the available scientific publications published concerning the association between the sense of coherence (SOC), designed by Aaron Antonovsky (1923-1994), measured with the scales SOC-29 or SOC-13, and different aspects of health. The study is descriptive and integrates more than 50 scientific publications. The results are divided into the categories: Physical health; biological measures; psychological measures; health measures incorporating psychological aspects; stress; and behavioural aspects. The conclusion from this review is that SOC is highly associated with psychological aspects, including stress and behavioural aspects when SOC is operationalized with the prevailing scales. However, we were unable to show a strong association between SOC and physical health that Antonovsky had predicted. Therefore, we conclude that the SOC scale can only serve as a predictor for health that is measured by incorporating psychological aspects, while it is not capable of explaining physical health that is measured only by means of physical terms.

scholarly journals Why is Antonovsky's sense of coherence not correlated to physical health? Analysing Antonovsky's 29-item sense of coherence scale (SOC-29)

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 767-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Positive Results

We have previously concluded that the use of the Antonovsky sense of coherence (SOC) scale was unable to document a predicted strong association between SOC and physical health. By way of statistical methods, numerous studies have investigated the validity, reliability and applicability of the SOC scale with positive results. However, this paper analyses whether the questions in the SOC scale actually represent the universe of factors necessary to describe the phenomenon of SOC, which we believe is an important supplement to the statistically means of investigating validity and reliability. In this paper we explore theidea,the concepts,the theoryandthe operationalisationbehind the SOC Scale. The conclusions are: 1) it seems that Antonovsky's basic idea of coherence, for which he coined the term sense of coherence, as the basis for the highly popular salutogenic orientation is outstandingly good, in spite of the lack of statistical evidence; 2) the chosen key explanatory concepts ofcomprehensibility,manageability, andmeaning, seems to be a fair, although mental, conceptualisation of this idea; 3) Antonovsky's theory was unfortunately much less clear, as Antonovsky assumed predictability to be very important for the sense of coherence, especially for comprehensibility and manageability. This notion of predictability leaves its footprints in his operationalization of SOC into the SOC Scale. Our analysis convinced us that the SOC scale is unlikely to be a fair materialization of the idea of coherence and thus unlikely to measure SOC correctly.

scholarly journals Sense of Coherence and Physical Health. A Cross-Sectional Study Using a New Scale (SOC II)

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 236-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional

scholarly journals Sense of Coherence and Physical Health. Testing Antonovsky’s Theory

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence

scholarly journals Sense of Coherence (SOC) Among Psychotherapists in Austria, Differentiated According to Number of Individually Completed Training Therapy Sessions

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2196-2199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz P. Binder ◽  
Elke Mesenholl-Strehler ◽  
Paul Paß ◽  
P. Christian Endler
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Standard Sample ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
Professional Group ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Questionnaire Assessment ◽  
Therapy Sessions ◽  
Aaron Antonovsky ◽  
Training Therapy ◽  
Individual Training

The sense of coherence (according Aaron Antonovsky, 1923—1994, when a person’s sense that his/her own life and the world are sufficiently comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful) of Austrian psychotherapists was assessed and compared with a standard sample, as well as with the sense of coherence (SOC) of members of other professions. In addition, the question as to whether psychotherapists who had completed more extensive individual training therapy/self-awareness sessions had a higher SOC than do those with fewer, was addressed. Forty psychotherapists who worked in private practices and various psychosocial health care institutions in Styria, Austria took part in the study. The investigation was conducted in the form of a questionnaire assessment. The evaluation showed that the overall SOC value of the professional group in question was significantly higher than that of the standard sample (162.3 vs. 145.7), as well as other samples (physicians: SOC = 153.8; teachers: SOC = 156.1; physiotherapists SOC = 158.1). Concerning whether psychotherapists who had completed more individual training therapy/self-awareness sessions had higher SOC values than did those with fewer, we found no difference in regard to the overall SOC score or SOC scores for individual components. The SOC of psychotherapists did not seem to depend on the number of additional training therapy/self-awareness sessions.

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