A short scale for measuring attitudes towards the doctor-patient relationship: psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the German Patient-Practitioner-Orientation Scale (PPOS-D6)

Background The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) was originally developed to compare doctor’s and patient’s consensus regarding patient centeredness. Research assumed PPOS measurements to be comparable across different groups of participants, however, without assessing the actual validity of this assumption. In this study, we investigate the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of a short version of the German translation of the PPOS. Methods Based on a cross-sectional survey of N = 332 medical students, we present a short version of the German Patient-Practitioner-Orientation Scale (PPOS-D6) and examine its psychometric properties as well as measurement invariance across participants with varying levels of medical experience and gender using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. Results Results indicate that PPOS-D6 provides valid and reliable measurements of patient-centeredness that are invariant across participants with different medical experience. Preliminary results also suggest invariance across gender. Conclusion PPOS-D6 is a suitable and efficient measure to compare group-specific attitudes towards the doctor-patient interaction. Additional research on convergent and discriminant validity and divergent study samples is advised.

The salutogenic basis of an individual’s mental health and psychological well-being

Introduction. The stressfulness of modern society necessitates studying the factors in human positive functioning. As the practice of such research shows, the leading role in advancing toward an individual’s high-quality life belongs actually to his/her psychological resources, in particular his/her salutogenic orientation as a resource helping a personality remain stable in various circumstances of life. Aim. To identify salutogenic factors in an individual’s psychological well-being. Methods. J. Crumbaugh, L. Maholic’s Purpose-in-Life-Test; Maddi`s Hardiness Survey; the test-questionnaire of self-attitude proposed by V. Stolin, S. Pantileev; C. Riff’s model of psychological well-being; Wiesbaden Inventory (WIPPF) developed by N. Peseschkian and X. Deidenbach; R. Lazarus and S. Folkman method examining coping strategies of (the General Causality Orientation Scale of E. Deci, R. Ryan; A. Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence scales. Results. Psychological resources maintaining and strengthening health and tolerance to stress, maintaining and developing personal opportunities are associated with the presence and awareness of life goals, positive self-acceptance, positive relationships with others and the ability to influence life events. An individual’s salutogenic orientation is based on a humanistic worldview, which is a sign of personal maturity, and such personal abilities as hope, love, trust, justice, politeness and others that are behavioural norms and ensure personal freedom and responsibility. Conclusions. From the standpoint of the salutogenic approach, human psychological health is considered as a state characterized by a certain position in the continuum between mental disorder and psychological well-being. An individual’s salutogenic orientation is the psychological basis for achieving the positive functioning states – psychological hardiness, life satisfaction and psychological well-being.

Social dominance orientation predicts civil and military intelligence analysts’ utilitarian responses to ethics-of-intelligence dilemmas

What is the real ethical framework of an intelligence analyst? We addressed this question by presenting a group of civil and military intelligence analysts (N = 41), and a control group of non-professionals (N = 41), with a set of dilemmas depicting intelligence agents facing the decision whether to violate a deontological rule where that would benefit their work (ethics-of-intelligence dilemmas). Participants judged how much violating the rule was acceptable. Next, we measured participants’ individual differences in social dominance orientation (using the Social Dominance Orientation scale which measures the proclivity to endorse intergroup hierarchy and anti-egalitarianism), their deontological and utilitarian response tendencies (using classical moral dilemmas), and how much they value rule conformity, traditions, and safety and stability in the society (using the Value Survey). A multiple regression analysis revealed that, among all the factors, only social dominance significantly helped explain variability in intelligence analysts’ but not non-professionals’ resolutions of the ethics-of-intelligence dilemmas. Specifically, social dominance positively predicted the tendency to judge violating the deontological rule acceptable, possibly suggesting that analysts who show a stronger proclivity to desire their country or company to prevail over others are also more lenient toward deontological violations if these result in a greater good for the state or the company. For the first time in the open literature, we elucidated some key aspects of the real ethics of intelligence.

Refining the Short Social Dominance Orientation scale (SSDO): A validation in seven European countries

People and societies differ in their tendency to justify inequalities and group hierarchies, a motivation that has been labelled social dominance orientation (SDO). In order to efficiently measure this motivational tendency, Pratto and colleagues (2013, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612473663) proposed the four-item Short Social Dominance Orientation (SSDO) scale. The present study comprehensively assesses the SSDO scale’s psychometric properties in seven European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, and Poland). Using large and diverse samples from these countries, we propose a measurement model to assess the scale’s structural validity and we assess measurement invariance (MI), reliability, and convergent validity. Results suggest that the scale is sufficiently reliable, shows theoretically predictable and consistent correlations with external criteria across countries, it exhibits at least partial scalar and partial uniqueness MI across the seven countries and full MI across gender. These findings offer support for the psychometric quality of the SSDO scale and its usefulness for cross-national and multi-topic social surveys.

Reassessing Passion and Perseverance as Dimensions of Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation: A Conceptual and Empirical Investigation into Theory and Measurement

Santos, G., C. S. Marques, and J. J. Ferreira. 2020. “Passion and Perseverance as Two New Dimensions of an Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale.” Journal of Business Research 112: 190–9 proposed a five-dimensional conceptualization of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO), but more evidence is needed before authors can reliably apply their conceptualization and operationalization. We provide a theoretical critique of their conceptualization and continue their scale development process. Four of five dimensions converged with other scales of the same constructs, but their passion dimension did not. The factor structure and predictive validity evidence also suggested that passion should not be included within the scope of IEO, and we assert that Santos et al.’s conceptualization of IEO is better represented with a hierarchical structure. Proactiveness and perseverance as well as risk-taking and innovativeness load onto two separate second-order factors, and these two second-order factors load onto the broader factor of IEO. We suggest that the construct measured by Santos et al.’s passion dimension may instead be a mediator between IEO and entrepreneurial outcomes, and we provide further insights into the measurement of IEO.