Differences in how physicians and patients perceive physicians’ relational communication

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between physicians’ self‐perceptions of their “typical” communicative style during medical interactions and the patients’ perception of the physicians’ communicative styles. Three dimensions of communicative style were studied: interpersonal involvement, communicative dominance, and expressiveness. The research participants were 25 physicians and 354 patients of a large, multifaceted medical clinic. There were three major findings of this study: (1) physicians’ self‐perceptions and patients’ perceptions of physicians’ communicative style differed significantly, (2) these perceptual differences were systematically related to the patients’ ages and education levels, and (3) physicians’ self‐perceptions of communication were unrelated to the patients’ satisfaction with medical care. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed.