In a sample of healthcare workers, it was deduced that exhibited attitude towards performing a role differs from their perception towards taking up that particular role in a hospital establishment.
Although this sample exhibited a negative attitude, they had positive perception of their role. It seems to me however, that perception and attitude should go hand in hand, and this sample defies my thinking. Any help?
Olubusayo,
You pose a great question. It is however important to establish how one will measure the two variables, perception and attitude, against role in question. There will be need to explain, what affects either, for many other variables come into the picture such as the obligations, reasons why, who is affected by what, as this in return differs in people/professionals, as some may have mastered how they can separate their attitude from their roles from experience and training.
Being no expert in the subject makes me feel I have not answered your question enough, however, this is my contribution.
Thank you.
Adoniah M. Mukona
Dear Olubusayo,
You have a valid question but the answer to it remains elusive. However, I must point out the most important thing in any behavioural study - you must base you study on some form of psychological/behavioural theory or framework. This is crucial, otherwise the deductions in your study will be rendered invalid.
My suggestion is to have looked up a particular theory first. In your case you are trying to examine 'positive affect' of doctors in a healthcare system. It has more to do with their motivation to work. My suggestion is that you read up on the works of Isen et al and Ryan/Deci. They have done a lot of studies in relation to positive affect of doctors and intrinsic motivation.
Secondly, if you want to measure the intention of a doctor to work, for example if you want to know if the physician has an intention to perform any act for a patient from the very outset, you could use the Theory Of Planned Behaviour as the foundation of your study. There are a lot of health service research work done based on this theory. I suggest you look into this aspects.
I hope I have been of help. Take care
Dear Olubusayo,
I suppose that for assessing these two perceptions you need two different tools (with different construct validity). By conducting a Nominal Group Technique with concerned health-workers, you can easily reach to themes which are needed for the study and clearly you will find that the themes and construct of your tools are different (attitudes towards performing a role from attitude towards taking up that particular role in a hospital establishment). Thank you for your question.
Thanks for your prompt response to my question. The two independent variables for the study in question is perception and attitude. Measured with two different validated instruments, one specifically designed to access attitude and the other measures perception. The responses to the questions are Likert scaled.
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