AN INVESTIGATION OF PATIENT MOOD AS A FUNCTION OF THE SOCIAL CLIMATE ON NURSING UNITS AND PATIENT LOCUS-OF-CONTROL.
Contributors: New York University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 134
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Mood is measured by McNair, Lorr and Droppleman's (1971) Profile of Mood States (POMS). The POMS is composed of six factors called tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, anger-hostility, vigor-activity, fatigue-inertia, and confusion-bewilderment. Social climate is measured by Moos' (1974) Work Environment Scale (WES) which consists of the following subscales: involvement, peer cohesion, supervisor support, autonomy, task orientation, work pressure, clarity, control, innovation, and physical comfort. Locus of Control is measured by Rotter's (1966) Internal-External Scale. The subjects consist of 186 volunteer patients providing the data on locus of control and mood and 128 volunteer nursing personnel from five nursing units in one medical center providing the data for social climate. Ninety-nine percent of the patients are admitted to the hospital with cardiovascular conditions requiring diagnostic work-up and medical management.

The following three hypotheses are proposed: (1) The more positive the social climate for a nursing unit, the less the total mood disturbance of the patients. Hypothesis 1 is supported for four out of the ten measures of the WES. (2) Patients with an internal locus of control will display less total mood disturbance than patients with an external locus of control. Hypothesis 2 is not supported. (3) The combination of social climate and patient locus of control will account for more of the variance in total mood disturbance than either one alone. Hypothesis 3 was supported.

The following research question is proposed. Which of the social climate dimensions account for the greatest variability in total mood disturbance? Of the four subscales of the WES that were significant, the subscale called "control" had the highest partial correlation with patients' mood disturbance after several days of hospitalization.

The findings of this investigation support Moos' theoretical framework in which environmental and personality factors individually and taken together account for changes in mood.

The social climate of the five nursing units varied significantly within the same hospital. As the social climate of the five nursing units varied from most favorable to least favorable, so varied the patients' mood on these units from less disturbance to greater mood disturbance. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-10, Section: B, page: 2924.

Thesis (PH.D.)--NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 0146.