Doctors' decision-making on giving information to cancer patients

Abstract

A major focus in the literature about doctor-patient communication is information-giving. In the case of cancer patients, one significant issue is which factors determine whether and how, general practitioners and oncologists give information to their patients. Whatever may be the content of information, the most important choice for the doctor is to give information or not. Our research group at the Department of Health Psychology has conducted investigations in order to identify the significant determinants of decisions concerning giving information to cancer patients. A sample of 60 doctors from Alicante province in Spain were asked their criteria for giving information about a cancer diagnosis. Results showed that perceived intelligence and emotional control in the patients were the best predicotrs of the decision by doctors to give information. Age and socio-economic status were also significantly associated with the doctors' information-giving practices. These data suggest that the criteria for giving information to cancer patients are subjective and show a strong cultural influence.     

Does the type of judgement required modulate cue competition?

According to the comparator process hypothesis (Matute, Arcediano, & Miller, 1996), cue competition in the learning of between-events relationships arises if the judgement required involves a comparison between the probability of the outcome given the target cue and the probability of the outcome given the competing cue. Alternatively, other associative accounts (the Rescorla-Wagner model: Rescorla &Wagner, 1972) conceive cue competition as a learning deficit affecting the target cue-outcome association. Consequently, the comparator process hypothesis predicts that cue competition occurs in inference judgements but not in contiguity ones, for only the first type of judgement implicitly involves such a comparison. On the other hand, the Rescorla-Wagner model predicts cue competition in both inference and contiguity judgements, because it establishes no relevant role for the type of judgement in producing cue competition. In Experiments 1 and 2 we manipulated the relative validity of cues and the type of question (inference vs. contiguity) in a predictive learning task. In both experiments we found a cue competition effect, but no interaction between the relative validity of cues and the type of question, suggesting that the Rescorla-Wagner theory suffices to explain cue competition.     

Ambivalent sexism,attitudes towards menstruation and menstrual cycle‐related symptoms

The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between ambivalent sexism and beliefs and attitudes towards menstruation, and, in turn, to study the influence of these variables on menstrual cycle‐related symptoms. One hundred and six Mexican women completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, the Beliefs about and Attitudes toward Menstruation Questionnaire and the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire. The higher scores on benevolent sexism were associated with the most positive attitudes towards menstruation and also with the belief that a menstruating woman should or should not do some activities and that menstruation keeps women from their daily activities. The higher scores on hostile sexism were associated with rejection of menstruation as well as with feelings of embarrassment about it. Beliefs about and attitudes towards menstruation predicted menstrual cycle‐related symptoms related to negative affect, impaired concentration and behavioural changes, but did not predict somatic symptoms. These results will be useful to health professionals and advocates who want to change the negative expectations and stereotypes of premenstrual and menstrual women and reduce the sexism and negative attitudes towards women that are evident in Mexican culture.     

Test development and use in five Iberian Latin American countries

The abundance of scholarship on test development and use generally is higher in English‐speaking than in Iberian Latin American countries. The purpose of this article is to help overcome this imbalance by describing and identifying similarities and differences in test development and use in two Iberian (Portugal and Spain) and three of the largest Latin American (Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela) countries. The stages of test development in each country, roles of professional associations, presence of standards for test use, professionals' educational training, commonly used tests, together with prominent challenges to continued progress are discussed. Test development and use in these five countries are transitioning from a dependence on the use of translated tests to greater reliance on adapted and finally nationally constructed tests. Continued growth requires adherence to international standards guiding test development and use. Stronger alliance among professional associations in the Iberian Latin American countries could serve as a catalyst to promote test development in these regions.