Meaning-Making Among Medical Students: Development of a Quantitative Measure of Self-Authorship

<p>Preparation for and application to medical school, as well as the subsequent medical training of matriculating students, can have an important impact on psychosocial development. The premedical baccalaureate is the traditional preparation for medical school, although many medical schools also offer a separate entry path through early assurance programs that provide conditional acceptance in the sophomore year of college. These programs may provide freedom in the remainder of the baccalaureate program to explore the liberal arts, which could be a source of differential development of non-cognitive skills among medical students. Self-authorship is defined as the ability to define one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations and provides the basis to operate in a complex, ambiguous environment. Such a capacity is relevant to the medical education, where students face changing roles and expectations as they progress through four years of medical school and then graduate training.</p> <p>This study investigated the application of a previously validated quantitative measure of self-authorship across the new population of medical students. Principal component analysis identified a 16-item instrument that measured three dimensions and one phase of self-authorship. Content analysis of responses validated the components. The findings identified the challenges in applying a quantitative measure of self-authorship to medical students. These students may be at a different level of development and require different contexts than those in previous studies. Further research is needed to investigate differences in development across students based upon their entry path to medical school.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD Higher Education Leadership, Management, Policy

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Leadership, Management and Policy

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Fallar, Robert

Contributors dc:contributor

• Eunyoung Kim, Ph.D.
• Elaine Walker, Ph.D.
• Erica Friedman, M.D.

• Self-authorship
• medical education
• survey development
• higher education
• early assurance
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/1954

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.shu.edu:dissertations-2967