Doctor Communication Style and Patient Outcomes: Gender and Age as Moderators

Past research has demonstrated that physicians' communication styles influence patient satisfaction, loyalty, recall of medical advice, and adherence to this advice. However, the research has failed to identify coherent interactional styles that produce favorable outcomes along all dimensions. The present study used a videotape analogue method to compare the efficacy of two communication styles that vary in terms of the power relations between the parties. Community members adopted the role of the patient and rated a male or female "doctor" using either an authoritative or a consultative communication style. Results indicate that the consultative style yielded superior satisfaction ratings, but not greater recall or adherence. The effects for style were moderated by significant interactions with physician gender and patient age.     

PHILOSOPHY AS TRAGEDY OR WHAT WORDS WON'T GIVE

This article examines Cavell's problematic understanding of scepticism and the knowledge of other minds with respect to his long preoccupation with tragedy. I point to the meta‐philosophical questions Cavell continually raises but fails to address such that a philosophy as tragedy is frequently announced. Taking the same meta‐philosophical questions raised by the inability of words to give us access to certain knowledge, I then rethink this problematic theologically. I show the way Cavell hints at a Christology and a doctrine of analogy neither of which he develops. In developing these two theologoumenon I make some observations on the relationship between theology, philosophy and the endemic potential of the tragic.     

EFFECTS OF SELF-EFFICACY and GOAL-ORIENTATION TRAINING ON NEGOTIATION SKILL MAINTENANCE: WHAT ARE THE MECHANISMS?

In a replication and extension of Gist, Stevens, and Bavetta (1991), we examined the effects of self-efficacy and a performance- versus a mastery-oriented post-training session on trainees' negotiation skill maintenance. Sixty MBA students received salary-negotiation training and engaged in practice negotiations with a confederate. They then attended either a performance- or a mastery-oriented post-training session. A second practice negotiation was conducted 7 weeks later. Results indicated that mastery-oriented trainees engaged in more interim skill-maintenance activities, planned to exert more effort, and showed more positive affect than did performance-oriented trainees. In addition, self-efficacy interacted with the post-training condition on Time 2 performance: Low self-efficacy trainees performed more poorly than high self-efficacy trainees in the performance- but not in the mastery-oriented post-training condition. Analyses indicated that trainees' cognitive withdrawal mediated this effect. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

TRANSFER TRAINING METHOD: ITS INFLUENCE ON SKILL GENERALIZATION, SKILL REPETITION, AND PERFORMANCE LEVEL

This study contrasted goal setting and self-management training designs for their effectiveness in facilitating transfer of training to a novel task. Behavioral measures of performance were used to assess transfer in terms of skill generalization, skill repetition and overall performance level. Skill generalization was more limited among the goal-setting trainees as compared to the self-management trainees. While goal-setting trainees generalized fewer skills to the novel task context, these skills tended to be used more repeatedly. In contrast, self-management trainees exhibited higher rates of skill generalization and higher overall performance levels on the transfer task, even after the effects of outcome goal level were controlled. Implications are discussed for future research on training transfer.