A technique to teach first-year medical students to conduct brief interviews that focus on how medical illness affects the daily life of patients is described. The technique includes a conceptual model of the interview and an explicit teaching method for instructors and students. (Author/MLW)

Developed for a course in social psychology, a guided design unit was created to help students explore the phenomena known as communication apprehension, reticence, and shyness. The social psychological theories introduced in the unit are belief theory, attribution theory, and perception theory. These theories are used to explain the phenomena…