Date of Award
5-1999
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Robert E. Carlson
Second Advisor
Karen Dwyer
Third Advisor
Shereen S. Rajaram
Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to discover the nature of the relationships between a patient’s communication apprehension with physicians and health locus of control and his/her satisfaction with the physician/patient interaction. No significant relationship was found between communication apprehension and a patient’s health locus of control. However, a positive correlation was found between communication apprehension and overall patient satisfaction and patient satisfaction with information. Possible explanations exist for this unexpected result within the uncertainty literature, and by considering that individuals with high communication apprehension may still communicate well despite their anxiety. Statistical analysis also showed that communication apprehension predicts patient satisfaction with information. This may be a result of a patient’s concern with a physician’s affect, rather than the information he/she is given, thus he/she may overestimate his/her satisfaction with the information received during the interaction. In addition, a highly anxious patient may be grateful that he/she does not have to communicate with the physician, thus leading to an increase in satisfaction with information. Perhaps the most important finding of this investigation was the existence of a curvilinear relationship between internal health locus of control and patient satisfaction with information. This finding serves as a bridge between the conflicting sets of research on health locus of control and patient satisfaction.
Recommended Citation
Galyon, Darian Allicia, "The Physician/Patient Interaction: Patient Satisfaction, Communication Apprehension, and Health Locus of Control" (1999). Student Work. 208.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/208
Comments
A Thesis Presented to the Department of Communication and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha.