Date of Award
2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program
Psychology
Supervisor
Dr. John Paul Minda
Second Advisor
Dr. Mark Goldszmidt
Third Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth Hayden
Abstract
While medical diagnostic reasoning has been highly studied, there has been little inquiry into how doctors think and reason about patient management. Patient management involves treating patients in the context of their daily lives. This study investigates expert-novice differences in the saliency of deep and surface features related to both patient diagnosis and patient management. Experts (endocrinologists), intermediates (medical residents), novices (medical clerks), clinical nurses, and certified diabetes educators completed a series of 10 forced- choice triads. Overall, experts and intermediates were more likely to choose deep feature matches than novices were: novices nearly always chose surface feature matches. Diabetes educators endorsed deep matches for both management and diagnostic triads, while nurses recognized only management-related deep features. I suggest that patient management is a salient category for healthcare providers and its development may depend on clinical experience.
Recommended Citation
Lesowski Devantier, Sarah Lynn, "THE EFFECTS OF EXPERTISE ON PHYSICIANS' USE OF GOAL-ORIENTED CATEGORIES" (2008). Digitized Theses. 4415.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4415