Task and socioemotional behaviors of physicians: a test of reciprocity and social interaction theories in analogue physician–patient encounters
Section snippets
Participants
Ninety-three participants (52 male, 41 female; mean age=23) were patients recruited from the waiting room of the student health clinic at a historically black university. Participants were 67% African-American, 13% African, 8% West Indian, 7% white and 5% other. Eighty-four percent of participants had high school degrees and some college education, 11% had completed bachelor’s degrees, and 2% had graduate degrees. Seventy-six percent of participants had incomes of under $10,000/year, 16% made
Results
Participants generally rated the interaction portrayed in the videotape as believable (mean=4.2; with a score of 5 representing strongly agree). ANOVA showed no significant differences in believability scores between the four videotapes.
Q1 asked whether participants recognized task and socioemotional behaviors displayed by the physician. Participants rated the physician in the high socioemotional tapes as having more socioemotional attributes (mean=46.50±13.56) than the physician in the low
Discussion
The results of this study show support for the general proposition of social interaction theory: Physician socioemotional behavior was clearly recognized and affected patient trust, self-disclosure, satisfaction, likelihood of recommendation, and number of words written on the recall scale. Although the manipulation check suggested that patients recognized the physician’s task behavior, such behavior did not affect patient response to the physician. Social interaction theory further predicts
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by a National Institutes of Health grant (No. S06-GM-08202-18) awarded to M.S.A. We are deeply indebted to Rebecca Logan and Tameika Culler for their time and energy on this project. We are also grateful to Vicki Rakes R.N. and Beth Clad R.M.A. for welcoming us into their clinic.
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