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Robert Rosenthal

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Rosenthal.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Quantifying construct validity: two simple measures.

Construct validity is one of the most central concepts in psychology. Researchers generally establish the construct validity of a measure by correlating it with a number of other measures and arguing from the pattern of correlations that the measure is associated with these variables in theoretically predictable ways. This article presents 2 simple metrics for quantifying construct validity that provide effect size estimates indicating the extent to which the observed pattem of correlations in a convergent-discriminant validity matrix matches the theoretically predicted pattern of correlations. Both measures, based on contrast analysis, provide simple estimates of validity that can be compared across studies, constructs, and measures meta-analytically, and can be implemented without the use of complex statistical procedures that may limit their accessibility.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Covert communication in classrooms, clinics, courtrooms, and cubicles.

Interpersonal expectancy effects refer to the phenomena whereby one person's expectation for another person's behavior comes to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy. The author examines the history and diversity of this area of inquiry, showing that the expectations of psychological researchers, classroom teachers, judges in the courtroom, business executives, and health care providers can unintentionally affect the responses of their research participants, pupils, jurors, employees, and patients. Using meta-analytic procedures, the author examines (a) moderator variables associated with the magnitude of interpersonal expectancy effects and (b) mediator variables implicated in the communication of interpersonal expectations. The author considers the social importance of the magnitudes of the obtained effects and points out research still needed to clarify issues in the mediation of these effects.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Physical therapists' nonverbal communication predicts geriatric patients' health outcomes.

Two studies explored the link between health care providers' patterns of nonverbal communication and therapeutic efficacy. In Study 1, physical therapists were videotaped during a session with a client. Brief samples of therapists' nonverbal behavior were rated by naive judges. Judges' ratings were then correlated with clients' physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning at admission, at discharge, and at 3 months following discharge. Therapists' distancing behavior was strongly correlated with short- and long-term decreases in their clients' physical and cognitive functioning. Distancing was expressed through a pattern of not smiling and looking away from the client. In contrast, facial expressiveness, as revealed through smiling, nodding, and frowning, was associated with short- and long-term improvements in functioning. In Study 2, elderly subjects perceived distancing behaviors of therapists more negatively than positive behaviors.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2002

Surgeons' tone of voice: a clue to malpractice history.

BACKGROUND: Interpersonal aspects of care, such as the communication behaviors of physicians, are often cited as central to patients' decisions to initiate malpractice litigation. Relatively little is known, however, about the impact of the communication behaviors of surgeons. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between judgments of surgeons' voice tone and their malpractice claims history. METHODS: We examined the relationship between surgeons' voice tone during routine office visits and their history of malpractice claims. Surgeons were audiotaped while speaking to their patients during office visits, and very brief samples of the conversations were rated by coders blind to surgeons' claims status. Two 10-second clips were extracted for each surgeon from the first and last minute of their interactions with 2 different patients. Several variables were rated that assessed warmth, hostility, dominance, and anxiety from 10-second voice clips with content and 10-second voice clips with just voice tone. RESULTS: Controlling for content, ratings of higher dominance and lower concern/anxiety in their voice tones significantly identified surgeons with previous claims compared with those who had no claims (odds ratio [OR] 2.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16 to 6.43 for dominance; OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.21 to 1.01 for concern/anxiety). CONCLUSIONS: Surgeons' tone of voice in routine visits is associated with malpractice claims history. This is the first study to show clear associations between communication and malpractice in surgeons. Specific types of affect associated with claims can be judged from brief audio clips, suggesting that this method might be useful in training surgeons.

Communication↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Contrasts and correlations in theory assessment.

OBJECTIVE: To describe a systematic quantitative approach to assessing the predictions made by competing theories using contrasts and correlational indices of effect sizes. METHODS: We illustrate the use of the contrast F and t to compare and combine predictions when the raw data are continuous scores, and z contrasts when working with frequencies in 2 x k tables of counts. RESULTS: The traditional effect size correlation indicates the magnitude of the effect on individual scores of participants' assignment to particular conditions. The contrast correlation obtained from the contrast F or t is, in some cases, the easiest way of estimating the effect size correlation in designs using more than two groups. The alerting correlation is another way of appraising the predictive power of a contrast and can be used to compute the contrast F from published results when all we have are condition means and the omnibus F from an overall analysis of variance. Omnibus Fs, those with more than 1 df in the numerator, are rarely useful in data analytic work since they address unfocused questions, yielding only vague answers. CONCLUSIONS: Asking focused questions using contrasts increases the clarity of our questions and the clarity and statistical power of our answers.

Adolescent↗