Patients’ Characteristics Affecting Physician-Patient Nonverbal Communication

Previous research has reported that nonverbal elements of physician-patient communication influence medical outcomes such as patients’ understanding, compliance, and saris/action with health care delivery. This investigation examined the impact of various patients’ characteristics (age, sex, education, anxiety, and relational history with the physician) on patterns of nonverbal communication exhibited in 41 physician-patient interactions at a family practice clinic. Several findings were noteworthy. First, although they were relatively consistent in their nonverbal responses to different patients, physicians generally reciprocated patient's adjustments in response latency, pauses during speaking turns, body orientation, and interruptions and compensated patient's modifications in turn duration and gestural rates. Second, physicians nonverbally interacted with patients over 30 years of age in a less domineering and more responsive fashion (e.g., comparable turn durations, more vocal back-channels, and more nonverbal behavior reciprocity) than they did when conversing with patients under 30. Third, physicians appeared responsive to patients experiencing various degrees of anxiety. Specifically, relative to their interactions with less worried patients, physicians used less task touch with anxious patients and to a greater degree compensated the worried patients nonverbal responses. Finally, the patients sex, education, and visit (i.e., first versus repeat) had little impact on the structure of physician-patient nonverbal exchanges.     

The Potential Contribution of the Behavioral Scientist to World Peace

In this brief statement, Carl Rogers, with assistance from David Malcolm, presents his view of the state of the world today. His hope is to disengage the world from a precarious entanglement that threatens human survival. He seeks alternatives that would reduce psychological barriers that impinge on rational communication.     

Marriage and Family Counseling in Counselor Education: National Trends and Implications

The authors report the results of a survey of 274 counselor education chairpersons asked to respond to a series of questions concerning the current status of marriage and family counseling in counselor education. Respondents indicated that marriage and family programs in counselor education are continuing to grow in popularity, identified courses most frequently employed in the training of such counselors, provided information about support that AACD could give to enhance the development of marriage and family counseling, and gave their opinions about how marriage and family counseling programs should be accredited.     

Moderation in the actor–partner interdependence model

Potential moderators of effects in the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) include variables that vary within dyads, between dyads, or both between and within dyads (i.e., mixed moderators). Another factor in the moderation of the APIM is whether dyads are indistinguishable (e.g., same‐sex friendship pairs) or distinguishable (e.g., heterosexual couples). For each possibility, what are the potential moderator effects (up to 8), how they might be estimated and tested, and how they can be interpreted are discussed. Submodels are also presented, based on patterns of moderation of the actor and partner effects, which are statistically simpler, more conceptually meaningful, and more powerful in testing moderator effects. Example analyses illustrate the recommended steps involved in an APIM moderation analysis.     

PROMOTING REGULAR EXERCISE IN ORGANIZATIONAL FITNESS PROGRAMS: HEALTH-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN MOTIVATIONAL BUILDING BLOCKS

Hypotheses are proposed about relations among "building block" components of the motivation to attain exercise goals in an organizational fitness program, as well as about health-related individual differences in those components. The hypotheses are tested in a longitudinal field study involving questionnaire, physiological, and behavioral data from 107 participants in such a program. In support of the componential hypotheses, goal attainment was a positive function of goal commitment. Goal commitment was an additive function of goal attractiveness and goal-specific self-efficacy/perceived control. In support of the individual difference hypotheses, physiological variables were associated with work- and health-related perceived barriers to goal attainment. Employees with high health risks ranged from .5 to 1.2 SDs higher in perceived barriers than employees with low risks. Evidence suggests that for goal setting to succeed as a program intervention, managers must concentrate on reducing the perceived work- and health-related barriers to exercise participation and goal attainment, especially for employees with high health risks.     

Implementing Theme-Focused Prevention: Challenge for the 1980s

This article describes theme-focused prevention as a specific type of active primary prevention programming, offers principles to guide program design, and outlines an actual program.     

The Point of Creative Frustration and the Creative Process: A New Look at an Old Model

An extension of Graham Wallas's model of the creative process is presented. Wallas's stages of preparation, Incubation, Illumination and Verification are reviewed, extended and integrated with the present model. Periods of Problem-Solving, Incubation and Growth are established with specific points of Initial Idea Inception, Creative Frustration and Illumination. The idea that a specific point of creative frustration occurring within the creative process is introduced. Responses to the Point of Creative Frustration are proposed: Denial, Rationalization, Acceptance of Stagnation and New Growth. The significance of the extended model is discussed.