Stress potential and esotericity of health problems: the significance of the physician's affective behavior.
The study examines the assumptions and the interpretation of data from recent studies that were intended to identify and explain patients' inclination to assess the efficacy of medical treatment on the basis of physicians' affective behavior toward them. It was hypothesized that this manner of assessment is specific to the doctor-patient relationship due to the uniqueness of the patient's problem, which is characterized by a relatively high stress potential and esotericity requiring professional help. Empirical investigation of four types of problems that varied in the level of their stress potential and the need for professional help ascertains that a) the stress potential of a problem and the need for a professional solution affect separately the propensity of assessing the content of the agent's assistance on the basis of the mode of its presentation; b) judgment of the mode indeed determines the assessment of the content of the professional solution; and c) this manner of assessment may apply also to other roles of the medical setting.
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001519:Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013315:Stress, Psychological