Parkinson's disease (PD) symptoms can create nonverbal cues that others may use to form negative impressions of the person with PD. If healthcare practitioners (HCPs) act upon inaccurate first impressions, they may misinterpret a client's interest and motivation for participation in healthcare interventions and suggest strategies that do not reflect the clients' interests or values. The broad objectives of this research are to explore practitioners' impression formation processes related to people who have PD and to find ways to maximize practitioners' abilities to infer personality of clients in order to develop effective working relationships with them. Understanding the issues affecting the impression formation process would allow healthcare practitioners to design interventions that can increase a client's quality of life by minimizing the potential communication disability created by Parkinson's disease.
The specific aims of this study are to develop an understanding of: (1) how clearly the person with PD communicates personality; and (2) how accurately healthcare practitioners are able to interpret that person's personality. The study will utilize a modified Brunswik lens analysis. Twelve participants who have PD will fill out demographic and personality measures and will be videotaped while discussing their daily routines and disease management strategies during individual interviews. Edited clips of the videotapes will be shown to healthcare practitioners who will be asked to determine each participant's personality. Behavioral ratings will also be completed on the edited clips. Lens model analysis will examine the correlations between the self-reports of the participants with PD, the practitioner impressions, and the behavioral ratings. Studying both the expression and perception of personality can lead to insights as to how to maximize communication between clients and practitioners.
| Lyons, Kathleen Doyle; Tickle-Degnen, Linda; Henry, Alexis et al. (2004) Behavioural cues of personality in Parkinson's disease. Disabil Rehabil 26:463-70 |
