The relationship between social support and various parameters of psychological well-being was examined with 96 third-year medical students at a large, metropolitan medical school. Assessment instruments included the Social Support Networks Inventory, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the General Well Being Scale, the Zung Self-Rating…

First year medical students answered parallel multiple-choice questions at different taxonomic levels as part of their diagnostic examinations. The results show that when content is held constant, students perform as well on interpretation and problem-solving questions as on recall questions. (Author/BW)

To help determine the role that test instrument formats play in evaluation, two parallel examinations were given to 227 second-year medical students. The tests were based on information presented in a medical case history. One required students to generate their own problem lists (the generate group); the other required the students to select…

In order to identify the relationship among social support networks, depression, life events, and student progress in medical school, 96 students completed a questionnaire. The results indicated good social support, a high number of recent life events, slight depression and a continuum of not quite passing to doing extremely well in medical…

The utility of general or select response formats for evaluating certain types of clinical competence is studied. Consideration of the suitability of an examination format to fulfill its intended purpose and the appropriateness of the questions included is recommended when designing an examination. (Author/AL)

Altering the age of a patient in a problem-based curriculum should encourage students to explore ethical issues related to human development. To assess the influence of a patient's age on problem-based tutorial discussion, the relevant discussion categories and the numbers of age-related discussions were compared. Subjects were four groups of six…

This paper presents a study that: (1) documented the course of problems for borderline students in an undergraduate medical program; (2) compared documentation by the same tutors of weaker students with good students in the same tutorial group; (3) documented which of six dimensions (knowledge, problem solving, critical appraisal, clinical skills,…

Different ways student-generated learning issues are used to deal with disciplinary content were assessed at seven North American medical schools with problem-based curricula. Structured interviews with key faculty representing the schools being studied suggested that the seven programs are encouraging the development of self-directed learning…

Self-perceptions of male and female medical students on various psychosocial characteristics were compared in 1980. The questionnaire consisted of: the Social Support Networks questions, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes and Rahe, 1967), the General Well Being Scale (Gurin, Veroff, and Felds, 1960), the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale…

Faculty and medical students' conceptions of an optimal progression toward graduation as defined by academic and psychosocial markers were compared. Twenty-four academic indicators of success or difficulty, primarily examination scores or clerkship evaluations, and 10 other indicators of progress toward graduation were assessed by 23 faculty and…