The stability and attitudinal correlates of warmth and caring in medical students |
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Authors: | P B ZELDOW† S R DAUGHERTY‡ |
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Institution: | Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois;Department of Psychology and Social Sciences, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois |
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Abstract: | It is often said that medical school admits students who are compassionate, nurturant and person-oriented, and transforms them into cold, impersonal graduates. These attributes describe two ends of a personality trait continuum referred to as psychological femininity. The Femininity Scale of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire was administered to a class of medical students four times over 3 years. Measures of empathy, attitudes towards doctor-patient relations and attitudes towards professional psychological help were also obtained. Femininity appears to be normally distributed, remarkably stable over a 28-month interval and predictive of attitudinal measures of empathy, readiness to make psychiatric referrals, recognition of one's own need for psychological help, and a non-cynical, person-oriented approach to patient care. Such findings suggest a different state of affairs within medical training than is usually portrayed. Rather than viewing medical school as having a universally adverse effect on student compassion, medical school has virtually no effect on self-reports of warmth, kindness, helpfulness, etc. Students at different ends of the femininity continuum may require different interventions aimed at teaching communication skills and interpersonal sensitivity. |
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Keywords: | Students medical/*psychol *attitude of health personnel *empathy *physician-patient relations temperament helping behaviour |
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