Emotion & Affect

Arrogant, Abusive, and Disruptive -- and a Doctor

He became arrogant and said, "You don’t know what to look for — you’re not a doctor."  He ignored her third page, and after another harrowing hour she called the attending physician at home. The child was rushed into surgery.

“He could have died or had serious brain injury,” Ms. Silverthorn said, “but I was treated like a pest for calling in the middle of the night.”

A resident at a University of California hospital failed to report a problem with a fetal monitoring strip because the attending physician was “notorious for ridiculing and yelling at the residents.”

Several recent hospital surveys have found that badly behaved doctors cause low morale and high stress.

• 67% of people surveyed at 102 hospitals think there is a connection between disruptive behavior and medical mistakes.

• 18% said they knew of a mistake that occurred from an obnoxious doctor (Rosenstein 2004).

• 40% of medical staff said that they had been so intimidated by a doctor that they were afraid to share medical concerns (The Institute for Safe Medication Practices).

These doctors are clearly exhibiting anger, a high arousal, unpleasant emotion.  Anger can have many negative effects because emotions tend to guide behavior. For instance, strong emotions can influence people to engage in risky behavior and ignore future consequences (Baumeister 205).  

Emotions, which arise automatically in response to a situation, are often difficult to control.  In the case of the doctors, stress in the workplace probably caused anger, which blinded them to the risk of acting rude and dismissive toward the nurses.

These hospitals would clearly benefit from positive emotions.  The broaden-and-build theory states that positive emotions expand an individual's attention and mind-set.  Positive emotions prepare individuals for hard times that may come in the future, such as, in this case, operations and medical procedures.  Positive emotions are just what stressed doctors need.

Additional benefits of positive emotions include increased flexibility, creativity and problem-solving ability (Baumeister 206).  In another instance with doctors, researchers put some physicians in a good mood by giving them candy.  Those physicians that had been given candy were 19% quicker and more accurate in diagnosing a patient with liver disease (Estrada, Isen & Young).

People in a positive mood also perform better, are more persistent, try harder, and are more motivated than people in a neutral mood (Erez & Isen).

The moral of the story: always give your doctor candy.