Understanding Life's Lottery
- 1 January 1997
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Health Psychology
- Vol. 2 (1), 31-43
- https://doi.org/10.1177/135910539700200104
Abstract
This article reviews studies of risk awareness of carriers of genetic disorders and individuals who attend genetic counselling. It focuses upon investigations of recall of risk estimates following counselling. Six factors are discussed which may influence individuals' recall of genetic risk estimates. These include: mode of genetic transmission, counsellees' reproductive behaviour or intentions, time delay between counselling and data collection, prior familiarity with the disorder, subjective perceptions of risk, and the way that risk information is presented during counselling. It is argued that using counsellees' recall of genetic risk estimates as a measure of the effectiveness of counselling is problematic, both at a methodological and conceptual level. It is suggested that assessments of the effectiveness of genetic counselling must involve an approach which conceptualizes counselling as a dynamic process in which both counsellee and counsellor have active roles to play.Keywords
This publication has 41 references indexed in Scilit:
- Relative fertility and mutation rate in neurofibromatosisHereditas, 2008
- The influence of genetic counselling in the era of DNA testing on knowledge, reproductive intentions and psychological wellbeingClinical Genetics, 1994
- How do parents of babies interpret qualitative expressions of probability?Archives of Disease in Childhood, 1990
- A child with cystic fibrosis: I. Parental knowledge about the genetic transmission of CF and about DNA‐diagnostic proceduresClinical Genetics, 1990
- Perception of risk in genetic counselingPsychology & Health, 1989
- How Medical Professionals Evaluate Expressions of ProbabilityNew England Journal of Medicine, 1986
- Between Never and AlwaysNew England Journal of Medicine, 1981
- Expressions of Probability: Words and NumbersNew England Journal of Medicine, 1980
- Genetic counseling: Provision and reception of informationAmerican Journal of Medical Genetics, 1979
- Genetic counseling: an appraisalClinical Genetics, 1974