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Studies suggest that health outcomes for preventable diseases are impacted by delayed treatment and lack of compliance. People often postpone seeking medical care because they fear hearing bad news from their physician. Paradoxically, when they finally do see a doctor, they may find out that their disease is indeed serious, but only because treatment was so delayed.Refusal to comply with a physician's instructions is another major issue. Although there are many reasons for this, one possible explanation is that patients are responding with psychological reactance. Reactance theory suggests that when an individual perceives that free choice is threatened or limited, he or she may respond by wanting to perform the threatened behavior even more, as if to preserve original freedoms. For example, if a physician tells a patient to quit smoking, the smoker might respond by smoking even more in an effort to preserve the freedom to smoke.Researchers hypothesize that psychological reactance may be reduced or avoided when physicians communicate with their patients through a process known as deliberation. In the following example, the physician has already explained to the patient that her weight could be having a negative impact on her diabetes. The physician, using deliberation, then initiates a dialogue about how the patient would like to address the situation:Physician: "You are already taking pretty strong medications, so your options are either to change your eating habits or increase your level of exercise. It's your choice."Patient: "I think I could exercise more by joining a gym. I could stop eating dessert, but I would hate to give up chocolate."Physician: "Okay. Let's negotiate. Why don't you try going to the gym and giving up sweets-except chocolate-for the next month. Then come back to see me, and we'll see where we are."
Adapted from S. Bigi ©2016 Frontiers.
-If the patient has not lost any weight after a month, which of the following most reflects self-serving bias?

Question

Passage
Studies suggest that health outcomes for preventable diseases are impacted by delayed treatment and lack of compliance.  People often postpone seeking medical care because they fear hearing bad news from their physician.  Paradoxically, when they finally do see a doctor, they may find out that their disease is indeed serious, but only because treatment was so delayed.Refusal to comply with a physician's instructions is another major issue.  Although there are many reasons for this, one possible explanation is that patients are responding with psychological reactance.  Reactance theory suggests that when an individual perceives that free choice is threatened or limited, he or she may respond by wanting to perform the threatened behavior even more, as if to preserve original freedoms.  For example, if a physician tells a patient to quit smoking, the smoker might respond by smoking even more in an effort to preserve the freedom to smoke.Researchers hypothesize that psychological reactance may be reduced or avoided when physicians communicate with their patients through a process known as deliberation.  In the following example, the physician has already explained to the patient that her weight could be having a negative impact on her diabetes.  The physician, using deliberation, then initiates a dialogue about how the patient would like to address the situation:Physician:  "You are already taking pretty strong medications, so your options are either to change your eating habits or increase your level of exercise.  It's your choice."Patient:  "I think I could exercise more by joining a gym.  I could stop eating dessert, but I would hate to give up chocolate."Physician:  "Okay.  Let's negotiate.  Why don't you try going to the gym and giving up sweets-except chocolate-for the next month.  Then come back to see me, and we'll see where we are."
Adapted from S. Bigi ©2016 Frontiers.
-If the patient has not lost any weight after a month, which of the following most reflects self-serving bias?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_0d15_0a9d_a3bf_6b68752c1ae1_MD0008_00 Attributional biases are cognitive biases (common errors in thinking) that tend to occur when people attempt to explain behavior (their own or someone else's) or attribute it to something. Self-serving bias is a common type of attributional bias in which an individual attributes success to internal factors but blames failure on external factors. For example, failure on a school exam is attributed to the test being unfair (external), whereas success on a school exam is attributed one's own intelligence (internal). This bias serves to preserve or protect one's self-esteem, which is one's overall opinion of self-worth. The patient's blaming the physician for her failure to lose weight (an external factor) best exemplifies the self-serving bias. (Choice A) The actor-observer bias is another common attributional bias whereby the actions of another person are attributed to internal factors while our own actions are attributed to external factors. An example of actor-observer bias is if the physician believes that the patient is lazy and dishonest (internal attributions). (Choice B) Self-serving bias explains how we attribute our own failure or success; it does not describe the extent to which we feel responsible for the failure or success of others. (Choice C) Confirmation bias is a common cognitive bias that occurs when we tend to favor information confirming beliefs and ignore, disregard, or refute information contradicting those beliefs. If the patient truly believes that she has lost weight, disregarding the number on the scale would be an example of confirmation bias. Educational objective: The self-serving bias is a type of attributional bias in which a person takes credit for a success (I did well on the test because I am smart) or blames a failure on an external factor (the test was unfair). This bias serves to protect self-esteem, one's overall opinion of self-worth.

Passage Studies Suggest That Health Outcomes for Preventable Diseases Are Impacted