Physician Belief Scale for Psychosocial Aspects of Patient Care

The instrument consists of 32 statements about dealing with psychosocial issues.

Nature of questions:

(1) indicate a positive attitude: 3 (10, 21, 29)

(2) indicate a negative attitude: remaining 29 (1-9, 11-20, 22-28, 30-32)

Repeated themes when dealing with psychosocial issues:

(1) intrusive

(2) unwanted by patients

(3) inefficient

(4) not enough time

(5) cannot be treated

(6) not as important as organic disease

(7) interference from personal issues

Responses with scoring: 5 point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree

physician belief scale =

= SUM(points for the 32 questions)

Interpretation:

• minimum score: 32

• maximum score: 160

• The higher the score, the lower the psychosocial orientation for the physician.