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Patients' expectancies and hospital outcome
Author(s) -
Martin Paul J.,
Moore Joseph E.,
Sterne Arthur L.,
Lindsey Carole J.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197701)33:1+<254::aid-jclp2270330159>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - expectancy theory , psychology , outcome (game theory) , clinical psychology , social psychology , mathematics , mathematical economics
Although it is widely held that patients' expectancies for therapeutic gain are related causally to treatment outcome, a recent review of expectancy research found scant evidence for the hypothesized expectancy‐outcome relationship. Supportive findings were reported only in studies with serious methodological weaknesses. This study tested the relationship between the prognostic expectancies of hospitalized schizophrenic patients and several objective measures of hospital outcome. It also tested the hypothesis that expectancies may bear primarily a predictive, not causal, relationship to outcome. Multiple regression analyses found patients' expectancies to be correlated significantly with 8 of 15 measures of posthospital adjustment and with 14 of 15 measures of prehospital adjustment. The findings supported the expectancy‐outcome relationship and also were consistent with a predictive interpretation of patients' expectancies.