THE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES BEHIND THE MEDICAL HUMANITIES PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED-STATES - AN EMPIRICAL-ASSESSMENT OF 3 DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO HUMANISTIC MEDICAL-EDUCATION

This study investigates the three major educational philosophies behin d the medical humanities programs in the United States. It summarizes the characteristics of the Cultural Transmission Approach, the Affecti ve Developmental Approach, and the Cognitive Developmental Approach. A questionnaire was sent to 415 teachers of medical humanities asking f or their perceptions of the amount of time and effort devoted by their programs to these three philosophical approaches. The 234 responses c onstituted a 54.6% return. The approximately 80:20 gender ratio of mal es to females and other demographic data on age and educational backgr ound were consistent with other studies of the field of medical humani ties. Reflections on the results in Table II indicate that some change s need to Lake place in the teaching of the medical humanities if the perceived ideal is to be achieved. In order for the current teachers o f the medical humanities to think that the appropriate philosophies be hind the teaching of the medical humanities are being implemented as t hey should be, much less time and effort need to be devoted to the Cul tural Transmission Approach. With no other published reports on the ed ucational philosophies behind the medical humanities programs, this st udy created a new knowledge base about this relatively young and rapid ly emerging field.