Attitudes towards psycho-social factors in medicine: an appraisal of the ATSIM scale

Abstract

As the importance of psycho-social factors in medicine is increasingly stressed, it is believed that attitudes towards psycho-social issues in medicine should be taken into account in the selection of medical students. The first step of a longitudinal study concerning the impact of medical studies on the students of a French-Canadian University gave us the opportunity to appraise the adequacy of Parlow & Rothman's (1974) ATSIM scale, a measure of attitudes towards psycho-social issues in medicine. We found the following correlations: (1) High scores on the ATSIM scale were negatively correlated with a relatively closed value system (high scores for dogmatism), (2) openness towards psycho-social factors in medicine and empathy were positively correlated, (3) There was a stronger correlation between the ATSIM scale and acceptance of absortion for social conditions than between acceptance of abortion for physical risks and this scale (this shows the social orientation of the ATSIM scale), and (4) hight scorers on the ATSIM scale seem to be more 'sensitive, forthright and expedient' than low scorers. Our results suggest that Parlow & Rothman's (1974) ATSIM scale might be a useful tool in the selection of medical students and further research is needed.

Empirical research on empathy in medicine—A critical review

“…Revised version of a scale ''originally developed to measure the attitudes of medical students toward physician empathy'' [144]. The Likert-type items are answered on a seven-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree Hogan's Empathy Scale [58,104,107,111,134,141,142,150,151,155,[193][194][195][196][197][198][199] Self-report through 64 items, responded to on a true/false basis. The items were selected -through a rather complex procedure where some psychologists' conceptions of a highly empathic man and the definition below were cornerstones -from the California Psychological Empathy is defined as the intellectual or imaginative apprehension of another's condition or state of mind without actually experiencing that person's feelings [195] Not explicitly described, but emotions are not explicitly mentioned in the definition of empathy…”

Attitudes of doctors toward community medicine: Differences between graduates from innovative and traditional medical schools

“…This finding might reflect previous research on medical undergraduates' attitudes to social issues in medicine, which suggests that younger students have positive attitudes because they are more idealistic than older students. 17 This study has shown that, at least 7 years beyond graduation, there are small but nevertheless measurable and statistically significant differences in attitudes toward aspects of community medicine between gradu- ates from community-oriented and traditional medical schools. Future research is important to evaluate whether these positive attitudes translate into different or better practice of community medicine.…”

“…15 Doctors in "established" practice from equaled graduating years were compared across medical schools because of the literature that links preventive care to length of time in practice. 16 Age and sex have also been shown to influence attitudes and practice of aspects of community medicine, 6 '" 17 and these have been accounted for in our analyses.…”

Construção de uma escala para avaliar atitudes de estudantes de medicina

“…Streit 9 e Woloschuk e outros 17 , em estudos de coorte para mensuração de aspectos atitudinais em estudantes de Medicina, consideraram que escores atitudinais altamente positivos encontrados em suas pesquisas poderiam ser decorrentes da existência das mesmas atitudes já por ocasião do ingresso no curso.…”

“…Nos últimos anos, foram desenvolvidos vários métodos para mensurar as características que os estudantes adquirem durante o período de graduação e que podem predizer a boa prática médica. Muitas escalas foram construídas, considerando objetivos educacionais da instituição, de especialidades médicas, de segmentos sociais ou em declarações de reconhecimento da aquisição de determinada habilidade [1][2][3][4][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] .…”