Staff and Patient Criteria for Judgments of Improvement in Mental Health

Abstract

This study concerned the behavioral basis for judgments of improvement in mental health of hospitalized psychiatric patients as these judgments are made by various kinds of psychiatric staff and by the patients themselves. The probability that patients' conceptions about the behaviors indicating improvement affect their own responses to the hospital regimen and that these conceptions are gained in part from communications from staff dictates the necessity for evaluating the characteristics of these conceptions and patterns of communication. Considerable variance in ideation was found between staff groups depending on their kinds of responsibilities for patient care. Similarly, variance among patient groups appears to depend on experience in the hospital.