The construction and statistical evaluation of two scales are described. The first is a Thurstone and Chave type measuring attitudes toward hospitals, and the second an objective measure of behavioral reactions during hospitalization. Split-half reliability (corrected) was high (.90) for the behavioral measure, moderately high (.78) for the attitude scale. Validity was assessed by the known-groups method. Patients designated by head nurses as responding positively to hospitalization and treatment scored significantly higher (p.001) on both scales than patients reported to be responding in a negative manner.
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