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Biomedical subjects

A Furnham

Publications and source records attributed to A Furnham.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

The health beliefs, experiences and personality of Japanese patients seeking orthodox vs complementary medicine.

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the personality traits, health beliefs and 'medical experiences' of Japanese patients of both orthodox (OM) and complementary medicine (CM). DESIGN AND OUTCOME MEASURE: Altogether, ninety-eight Japanese patients completed a questionnaire. This looked at the types of illness they had had, medical history, satisfaction with GP, general health beliefs and three personality dimensions. RESULTS: No differences were seen between the two medical groups on medical history and general health beliefs. However, significant differences on present illness, satisfaction with their GP and two personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness) were found between the groups. The CM patients appeared to be less satisfied with orthodox medicine, less agreeable and more conscientious compared to the GP group. CONCLUSION: The results imply that the combination of the type of illness, the level of patient's satisfaction and their personality tendency in part determines their choice of practitioner. This study based in Japan replicated many of the findings already established in the West. It also uniquely added an examination of personality differences.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Attitudes of medical and nonmedical students toward orthodox and complementary therapies: is scientific evidence taken into account?

Medical and nonmedical students completed a questionnaire indicating how willing they would be to try various therapies for treatment. Both groups assessed more traditional complementary practices such as homeopathy and acupuncture as similar to more orthodox treatments such as physiotherapy or prescribed diets. Both groups appeared not to differentiate between established techniques (physiotherapy) and less tested techniques (yoga). Furthermore, neither group seemed particularly concerned about the scientific evaluations of treatments.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1999

Ignorance about homeopathy.

Three hundred and three (303) adults selected by a research consultancy were asked six open-ended questions about homeopathy to ascertain their beliefs, knowledge, and behavior. Just over 40% said homeopathy meant to them "natural or herbal medicine"; while approximately one third said they do not know how homeopathy "works." Just under one third believed that homeopathy was available on the British National Health Service, while two thirds agreed that it was quite easy to get homeopathic treatment. Despite its popularity, people remain surprisingly ignorant about homeopathy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Sex differences in self-estimates of lay dimensions of intelligence.

260 participants rated themselves on 12 items that made up the three types of intelligence as noted by Sternberg, et al. in 1981. There were sex differences on two of the three standardized scores with men rating themselves higher than women on practical and verbal intelligence. This confirms previous studies of sex differences in the ratings of over-all (g) and multiple intelligences.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Lay theories of etiology and "cure" for four types of paraphilia: fetishism; pedophilia; sexual sadism; and voyeurism.

The current study set out to investigate the structure, determinants, and relationship between lay theories of the etiology and efficacy of "cures" for four types of paraphilia: fetishism, pedophilia, sexual sadism, and voyeurism. One hundred and five participants completed a four-part questionnaire, which was divided into (a) demographic details, (b) perceptions of the etiology, (c) ratings of cure for each paraphilia, and (d) the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Previous studies of lay theories have demonstrated a clear and interpretable factor structure similar to that of explicit academic theories, as well as a clear and logical relationship between perceived etiology and cure. A similar structure was expected to emerge in this study, together with positive correlations between the various factors and personality type. A factor analysis revealed a clear and logical factor structure for etiology and cure items. Further, etiology and cure factors correlated strongly with each other but only moderately with demographic details and personality differences. These findings are discussed in relation to growing literature in the field.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Psychiatric labelling, sex role stereotypes and beliefs about the mentally ill.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of two main variables on specific attitudes and beliefs about mental illness. The first variable tested the labelling theory proposal that the label of mental illness per se is stigmatizing for those so labelled. The second tested the proposal of Rosenfield (1982) that males and females receive a more severe societal reaction for deviance when the deviant behaviour is inconsistent with traditional sex role norms. Questionnaires with vignettes describing four behaviour types were given to young adult respondents. The expected effect of a psychiatric diagnosis and of deviance from sex role stereotypes were not confirmed. It was concluded that while several variables combine to influence specific attitudes and beliefs about the mentally ill, the type of behaviour displayed is the crucial factor.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Factors affecting nonmedical participants' allocation of scarce medical resources.

This study was designed to determine the factors that affect nonmedical participants' judgments in constructing a ranked waiting list for kidney patients requiring dialysis. Participants (N=167) were given a questionnaire that provided minimal demographic data about 16 hypothetical patients. Participants were requested to rank patients in order of priority for treatment. Each participant's personal demographic details were also obtained. Patients differed on four dimensions: gender, income, alcohol consumption, and religious beliefs, yielding a 2x2x2x2 design. The participants favoured for treatment included females over males, "poor" over "rich," nondrinkers over drinkers, and Christians over atheists. Results are discussed in terms of establishing democratic criteria and informing medical personnel on explicit factors which may affect their decision making, thus guarding against biases in judgment.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

Perception of body shapes by anorexics and mature and teenage females.

Three groups of females-Anorexic (mean age 28). Teenage (mean age 16), and Mature adults (mean age 27)-were shown four male and four female body drawings ranging from very thin to very fat and asked to rate them on four categories (attractive, healthy, confident, and popular) using a 10-point bipolar scale. A predicted and consistent pattern occurred, namely that the anorexics rated fatter women less attractive, less healthy, less confident and less popular than teenagers and mature females, while at the same time rating male body shapes more attractive than did the two other female groups. Both anorexic and teenage groups rated the thinner women as more attractive, healthy, confident, and popular than the mature females. Both mature and teenage females rated the fat female body shape more positively than did the anorexics. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Overcoming neuroses: lay attributions of cure for five specific neurotic disorders.

This study was concerned with lay beliefs about the importance of 24 different contributors towards overcoming five neurotic disorders. In this study, subjects (n = 113) completed a questionnaire indicating how effective 24 factors were to overcoming five specific problems: social phobia, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Factor analysis revealed almost identical clusters for each problem, and a factor structure very close to Furnham and McDermott (1994). Three factors emerged and were labeled self-reliance, seeking help, and external control. The perceived relevance of only seeking help differed significantly between problems, with seeking help rated as most important and self-reliance least important overall. Some individual difference factors (sex and religion) were found to predict certain factor attributions for specific disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder was considered most in need of help and social phobia/panic disorder least. Females believed more in seeking help than males, who stressed external control more than females. Religious respondents rated external control more highly than nonreligious respondents. The clinical relevance of studying attributions for cure is also considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

A study and meta-analysis of lay attributions of cures for overcoming specific psychological problems.

Lay beliefs about the importance of 24 different contributors to overcoming 4 disorders that constitute primarily cognitive deficits were studied. A meta-analysis of previous programmatic studies in the area was performed so that 22 different psychological problems could be compared. In the present study, 107 participants completed a questionnaire indicating how effective 24 factors were in overcoming 4 specific problems: dyslexia, fear of flying, amnesia, and learning difficulties. Factor analysis revealed almost identical clusters (inner control, social consequences, understanding, receiving help, and fate) for each problem. The perceived relevance of those factors differed significantly between problems. Some individual difference factors (sex and religion) were found to predict certain factor attributions for specific disorders. A meta-analysis of the 5 studies in this series yielded a 6-factor structure comparable to those of the individual studies and provided results indicating the benefits and limitations of this kind of investigation. The clinical relevance of studying attributions for cure is considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

An international validation of the interaction with disabled persons scale.

The Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP) was devised to measure attitudes in terms of discomfort reported about social interaction with people with disabilities. The Scale has been used in Australia for ten years. This article reports results of an international validation project that was designed to determine whether psychometric characteristics and norms emerging for Australian groups apply elsewhere. A methodological proforma was developed to maximize uniformity of data collection across nine countries: Australia, Canada, Croatia, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Poland, Scotland and the United States. In most countries the Scale was administered in English; however it also was translated into Germany, Polish, French and Croat. Results indicate that across countries mean scores fell within ten points, similar moderate to high levels of item homogeneity occurred and level of prior contact with people with disabilities emerged as the strongest predictor of IDP scores. It was concluded that the IDP Scale is a valid measure that is able to discriminate between respondents within the countries included in the study.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Ethical ideology and the allocation of scarce medical resources.

This study was designed to determine the ethical beliefs upon which both medical and non-medical participants base their decisions when asked to construct a ranked waiting-list for treatment for patients suffering from kidney failure. Participants were given minimal demographic and medical data about hypothetical patients and were asked to rank them in order of priority for treatment. A participant's initial ethical position was determined by the Forsyth (1980) Ethical Ideology Questionnaire which provides a fourfold typology based on two factors (relativism and idealism). Each participant's personal demographic information was also obtained. The analysis yielded a main effect of the 'number of dependents' variable of the patient and its interaction with the 'religiousness' variable of the participants which reflected a utilitarian moral ideology working within an egalitarian framework. Implications of studies of this sort for sociomedical moral decision making and research on ethical and moral issues are discussed. The limitations of this sort of research are also considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Ear dominance and telephone sales.

In a field study, three equally sized sales teams used on of three head-sets--left, right, both ears--for a day's selling of insurance by telephone. This had no effect on sales. In a retrospective study of records, daily sales performance including the percentage conversion rate for sales divided by the number of calls and the number and duration of calls was related to preference for type of head-set. Sales were markedly influenced by the choice of head-set. People who chose to wear the left earpiece significantly out sold the others wearing right and stereohead-sets. Neither the number of incoming calls nor the time spent on the telephone were influenced by the choice of head-set. When sales are analysed in terms of individual differences in personal preference for type of head-set, those who chose the left ear had an advantage. Forced use of the left, versus right ear or both ears for one day had no effect.

Commerce↗
PubMed1997

Age and sex differences in health beliefs and behaviours.

200 adults completed various questionnaires about their general health awareness, health locus of control, and the perceived causes of illness. Whereas there were fewer age differences than expected, a number of consistent sex differences appeared. For example, the women relied less on "provider control" of health (doctors being in charge), expressed greater "nutritional consciousness," and believed more than men that psychological factors play an important part in the aetiology of illness.

Adolescent↗