The influence of patient gender on medical and psychology students’ illness attributions: Experiences with a narrative technique

Abstract

We attempted to identify whether and how the gender of the patient influences interpretations of an illness narrative. We investigated how medical and psychology undergraduates’ ( n = 313) views change according to the patient’s gender, students’ gender, and field of study. A short story about a female patient was chosen as stimulus material, and a gender-modified version with a male protagonist was created for comparison. Responses were content analyzed by qualitative and quantitative methods. The female patient elicited more detailed descriptions and somatizing attributions. The gender of students had a stronger impact on responses than their field of study.