Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 02602938 2010 507299, Nov 18, 2010
RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and s... more RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and school administrators. The validity of RMP is a point of debate; many would argue that self‐selection bias obscures the usefulness of RMP evaluations. In order to test this possibility, we collected three types of evaluations: RMP evaluations that existed at the beginning of our study, traditional in‐class evaluations and RMP evaluations that were prompted after we collected in‐class evaluations. We found differences in the types of evaluations students provide for their professors for both perceptions of professor clarity and ratings of professor easiness. Based on these results, conclusions drawn from RMP are suspect and indeed may offer a biased view of professors.
Clinicians often inject good news into bad news delivery, and they do so for a variety of reasons... more Clinicians often inject good news into bad news delivery, and they do so for a variety of reasons. We present a framework that draws from research in the fields of health and social psychology to shed light on situations in which clinicians add superfluous good news into bad news conversations in an effort to ease the conversation or mitigate patients' distress, a broad strategy we refer to as blended news delivery. Our framework includes predictors of clinicians' use of blended news delivery, characteristics of blended news and outcomes of this strategy for both patients and clinicians. This framework addresses a common aspect of health communication and can direct future research on ideal strategies for and likely consequences of blended news delivery and communication more broadly.
The Situational Construal Model proposes that characteristics of persons and situations interact ... more The Situational Construal Model proposes that characteristics of persons and situations interact to influence construal of situations and resultant behavior. We apply this framework to the study of healthcare experiences in two studies. In Study 1, mTurk users (N = 670) read vignettes of positive, neutral, or negative healthcare experiences, described their construal of the vignette, and completed individual difference measures. In Study 2, mTurk users (N = 292) recalled a recent healthcare visit and reported individual differences, visit characteristics, and outcomes following the visit. Across both studies, personality was related to the valenced construal of healthcare experiences. In Study 2, patient and visit characteristics predicted situational construal and self-reported visit outcomes, and situational construal statistically mediated relationships between patient and visit characteristics and outcomes. The current work supports the application of the Situational Construal Model to healthcare situations and demonstrates the importance of both person and situation variables for understanding key healthcare outcomes.
Information often comes as a mix of good and bad news, prompting the question, &a... more Information often comes as a mix of good and bad news, prompting the question, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" In such cases, news-givers and news-recipients differ in their concerns and considerations, thus creating an obstacle to ideal communication. In three studies, we examined order preferences of news-givers and news-recipients and the consequences of these preferences. Study 1 confirmed that news-givers and news-recipients differ in their news order preferences. Study 2 tested two solutions to close the preference gap between news-givers and recipients and found that both perspective-taking and priming emotion-protection goals shift news-givers' delivery patterns to the preferred order of news-recipients. Study 3 provided evidence that news order has consequences for recipients, such that opening with bad news (as recipients prefer) reduces worry, but this emotional benefit undermines motivation to change behavior.
Patients'... more Patients' expectations predict important health outcomes. The goal of this study is to describe the types of expectations that hernia and gallbladder patients have for the outcomes of their surgery and to identify relationships between these expectations and both patient- and surgeon-reported variables. Patients (N = 143) at an out-patient surgery clinic completed self-report questionnaires before and after a pre-surgical consultation in which they learned they would be scheduled for surgery. After indicating their general expectations for their surgical outcomes (positive or negative), patients reported specific outcome expectations, which were coded into eight categories: functional improvement, symptom relief, quality-of-life improvement, emotional improvement, general health, no effect expected, no response (or unsure) and negative expectations. Functional improvement and symptom relief were the most common types of expectations mentioned by patients. A key finding was a significant difference in the pattern of expectations provided by Hispanic versus non-Hispanic patients, as well as between patients across the range of health literacy. Patients undergoing hernia and gallbladder surgery have a variety of expectations, and these expectations vary across demographic groups. Patients who are particularly vulnerable to poor physician communication have positive but diffuse expectations.
RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and s... more RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and school administrators. The validity of RMP is a point of debate; many would argue that self‐selection bias obscures the usefulness of RMP evaluations. In order to test this possibility, we collected three types of evaluations: RMP evaluations that existed at the beginning of our study, traditional in‐class evaluations and RMP evaluations that were prompted after we collected in‐class evaluations. We found differences in the types of evaluations students provide for their professors for both perceptions of professor clarity and ratings of professor easiness. Based on these results, conclusions drawn from RMP are suspect and indeed may offer a biased view of professors.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 02602938 2010 507299, Nov 18, 2010
RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and s... more RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and school administrators. The validity of RMP is a point of debate; many would argue that self‐selection bias obscures the usefulness of RMP evaluations. In order to test this possibility, we collected three types of evaluations: RMP evaluations that existed at the beginning of our study, traditional in‐class evaluations and RMP evaluations that were prompted after we collected in‐class evaluations. We found differences in the types of evaluations students provide for their professors for both perceptions of professor clarity and ratings of professor easiness. Based on these results, conclusions drawn from RMP are suspect and indeed may offer a biased view of professors.
Clinicians often inject good news into bad news delivery, and they do so for a variety of reasons... more Clinicians often inject good news into bad news delivery, and they do so for a variety of reasons. We present a framework that draws from research in the fields of health and social psychology to shed light on situations in which clinicians add superfluous good news into bad news conversations in an effort to ease the conversation or mitigate patients' distress, a broad strategy we refer to as blended news delivery. Our framework includes predictors of clinicians' use of blended news delivery, characteristics of blended news and outcomes of this strategy for both patients and clinicians. This framework addresses a common aspect of health communication and can direct future research on ideal strategies for and likely consequences of blended news delivery and communication more broadly.
The Situational Construal Model proposes that characteristics of persons and situations interact ... more The Situational Construal Model proposes that characteristics of persons and situations interact to influence construal of situations and resultant behavior. We apply this framework to the study of healthcare experiences in two studies. In Study 1, mTurk users (N = 670) read vignettes of positive, neutral, or negative healthcare experiences, described their construal of the vignette, and completed individual difference measures. In Study 2, mTurk users (N = 292) recalled a recent healthcare visit and reported individual differences, visit characteristics, and outcomes following the visit. Across both studies, personality was related to the valenced construal of healthcare experiences. In Study 2, patient and visit characteristics predicted situational construal and self-reported visit outcomes, and situational construal statistically mediated relationships between patient and visit characteristics and outcomes. The current work supports the application of the Situational Construal Model to healthcare situations and demonstrates the importance of both person and situation variables for understanding key healthcare outcomes.
Information often comes as a mix of good and bad news, prompting the question, &a... more Information often comes as a mix of good and bad news, prompting the question, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" In such cases, news-givers and news-recipients differ in their concerns and considerations, thus creating an obstacle to ideal communication. In three studies, we examined order preferences of news-givers and news-recipients and the consequences of these preferences. Study 1 confirmed that news-givers and news-recipients differ in their news order preferences. Study 2 tested two solutions to close the preference gap between news-givers and recipients and found that both perspective-taking and priming emotion-protection goals shift news-givers' delivery patterns to the preferred order of news-recipients. Study 3 provided evidence that news order has consequences for recipients, such that opening with bad news (as recipients prefer) reduces worry, but this emotional benefit undermines motivation to change behavior.
Patients'... more Patients' expectations predict important health outcomes. The goal of this study is to describe the types of expectations that hernia and gallbladder patients have for the outcomes of their surgery and to identify relationships between these expectations and both patient- and surgeon-reported variables. Patients (N = 143) at an out-patient surgery clinic completed self-report questionnaires before and after a pre-surgical consultation in which they learned they would be scheduled for surgery. After indicating their general expectations for their surgical outcomes (positive or negative), patients reported specific outcome expectations, which were coded into eight categories: functional improvement, symptom relief, quality-of-life improvement, emotional improvement, general health, no effect expected, no response (or unsure) and negative expectations. Functional improvement and symptom relief were the most common types of expectations mentioned by patients. A key finding was a significant difference in the pattern of expectations provided by Hispanic versus non-Hispanic patients, as well as between patients across the range of health literacy. Patients undergoing hernia and gallbladder surgery have a variety of expectations, and these expectations vary across demographic groups. Patients who are particularly vulnerable to poor physician communication have positive but diffuse expectations.
RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and s... more RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and school administrators. The validity of RMP is a point of debate; many would argue that self‐selection bias obscures the usefulness of RMP evaluations. In order to test this possibility, we collected three types of evaluations: RMP evaluations that existed at the beginning of our study, traditional in‐class evaluations and RMP evaluations that were prompted after we collected in‐class evaluations. We found differences in the types of evaluations students provide for their professors for both perceptions of professor clarity and ratings of professor easiness. Based on these results, conclusions drawn from RMP are suspect and indeed may offer a biased view of professors.
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