McGee H M, Cairns J
Department of Psychology, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland.
Med Educ. 1994 Nov;28(6):513-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1994.tb02728.x.
Unrealistic optimism may contribute to risky health practices and to a delay in seeking treatment for medical conditions, as most individuals perceive themselves to be at little risk for various disorders. It is thus an important concept to present to medical students as part of their behavioural sciences training. Social psychological concepts such as unrealistic optimism may appear, on initial presentation to students, to be a misjudgement based on faulty understanding of risk estimates by the general population. This project aimed to teach the principle of unrealistic optimism by having students document their own beliefs about health risks. Students rated their own risk, relative to other classmates, of experiencing a range of 17 health problems. Questionnaires were completed by two classes of medical students (n = 257). Class results showed varying levels of unrealistic optimism for all 17 conditions. Males and females differed significantly on three of the 17 conditions. Student data were obtained rapidly in a large didactic setting and served to illustrate the concept of unrealistic optimism which was subsequently taught in class. Such exercises may be a useful teaching aid to students providing them with feedback on their own cognitive processes and illustrating that they display cognitive distortions similar to those of patients.
不切实际的乐观主义可能会导致危险的健康行为，并延误就医，因为大多数人认为自己患各种疾病的风险很小。因此，作为医学生行为科学培训的一部分，向他们介绍这一重要概念很有必要。诸如不切实际的乐观主义等社会心理学概念，在初次向学生介绍时，可能看起来是基于普通大众对风险估计的错误理解而做出的错误判断。本项目旨在通过让学生记录自己对健康风险的看法来教授不切实际的乐观主义原则。学生们对自己相对于其他同学而言，经历17种健康问题的风险进行了评级。两个班级的医学生（n = 257）完成了问卷调查。班级结果显示，在所有17种情况下，都存在不同程度的不切实际的乐观主义。在17种情况中的3种情况下，男性和女性存在显著差异。在大型教学环境中迅速获取了学生数据，这些数据有助于说明不切实际的乐观主义概念，随后在课堂上进行了讲解。此类练习可能是一种有用的教学辅助手段，能为学生提供关于他们自身认知过程的反馈，并表明他们表现出与患者类似的认知扭曲。
