Physician Sociality Communication and Its Effect on Patient Satisfaction

This investigation examined the relationship between physicians' sociality usage and subsequent patient satisfaction. The SPSS (Service Provider Sociality Scale) was distributed to 198 adults from a midwestern state. Multiple regression results revealed that both courtesy expressions and personal connection socialities played a significant role in overall patient satisfaction with the physician. However, courtesy expressions accounted for more unique variance in patient satisfaction than did personal connections. No significant interactions were found between sociality and physician gender in the prediction of patient satisfaction in subsequent post-hoc analyses.     

Confirmatory analysis of the factorial structure and validity of the service provider sociality scale

This investigation assessed the factorial structure and validity of the Service Provider Sociality Scale (SPSS). The SPSS was administered to 455 customers, including 255 undergraduate students attending a small Midwestern college and 200 residents in communities surrounding the college. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the service provider sociality measurement model had significant composite reliability and discriminant validity. Implications and recommendations for further research are provided.     

Expectancy violation and student rating of instruction

This study examined whether violations that are incongruent with student expectations are significantly different than congruent violations of expectancy in relation to student ratings of instruction. Analysis using the Scheffe' post ANOVA test revealed that college students having high expectations/high experiences evaluated teachers more favorably than students with low expectations/high experiences, low expectations/low experiences and high expectations/low experiences. Reasons why these findings did not coincide with the expectancy violation model are offered.