Abstract

PETRA-MICU, Ileana; CORTES-MORELOS, Jacqueline; TALAYERO-URIARTE, José Antonio  and  FOUILLOUX-MORALES, Mariana. Semantic representation of the term 'medical psychology' in medical students: a longitudinal study. FEM (Ed. impresa) [online]. 2015, vol.18, n.1, pp.79-86. ISSN 2014-9840.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S2014-98322015000100013.

Introduction. Medical psychology constitutes an important part of the formation of a medical student and little has been studied on the way these students conceive it. Aim. To analyze the structural and restructuring process in medical students of the term 'medical psychology'. Subjects and methods. The sample was formed by a group of students from the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who belonged to a Higher Academic Demands Course and was followed during their five years of studies. It was a prospective, observational, and longitudinal with annual cross-sections study, with quantitative and qualitative analysis of the information obtained through the implementation of the natural semantic network method. Results. From the eight words that were constant throughout the years, the next definition emerged: 'medical psychology considers that the mind of the patient in relation to the help the doctor gives helps to understand his personality in favor of his health'. Conclusions. The systematic study the subject of 'Medical Psychology' seems to give the students resources to help consolidate terms that will be with him all along his studies and hopefully will permit him to develop a humanistic attitude that will remain with him during his professional life.

Keywords : Medical psychology/behavioral sciences; Medicine; Natural semantic network; Student.

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