Records of the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) Medical School Attitude Questionnaire (MSAQ)
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Conducted between 1959 and 1960, the Medical Students Attitude Questionnaire was a cross-cultural study undertaken by the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) and the World Federation on Mental Health, which examined the beliefs and feelings medical students had toward a variety of issues pertaining to their future roles as medical professionals. The materials include correspondence, questionnaires, and responses.
Historical note
Founded in 1955, the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) is a non-profit organization that promotes and carries out multidisciplinary and cross cultural studies on topics of contemporary relevance. In 1959, a study was undertaken by RISM and the World Federation on Mental Health to understand the attitudes that medical students of all specialties and from around the world had towards issues of mental health in medicine.
Participants were asked about their feelings towards the salience of social and emotional factors in illness, their tolerance for handling cases where social and emotional problems complicated the medical problems, their attitudes towards diagnosing what falls within the scope of mental illness and the impact of social biases in diagnosing therapy. Questions regarding their personal backgrounds, their preferred specialties, stereotypes towards specialties and what environment they wanted to practice medicine in were also part of the questionnaire.
The questionnaire was administered to students in many parts of the world, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and the United States.
Arrangement note
This collection has been arranged in three series chronologically:
Series
- Series I: Pretesting Correspondence
- Series II: Research/Working Papers
- Series III: Completed Questionnaires
Scope and Contents
The records of the Medical School Attitude Questionnaire (MSAQ), part of the collection on the Research Institute on the Studies of Man, consist of 4.5 linear feet of material from 1959-1960. The collection has been broken into three series: Pretesting Correspondence, Research and Working Papers, and Questionnaires.
Series I: Pretesting Correspondence and Questionnaire Drafts contains correspondence regarding the content and development of the questionnaire as well as copies of the drafts with comments, pretests and official copies of the completed questionnaire. It is arranged by subject.
Series II: Research and Working Papers contains copies of questions and data from previous studies used as reference in the development of the MSAQ and is grouped by subject.
Series III: Questionnaires contains a bulk of the contents and is comprised of completed questionnaires by medical students from universities around the world and some blank copies of the questionnaires. The questionnaires have been grouped by the part of the world or specific institution where they were completed.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
The Collection contains human subject data, and some material may be restricted. Please contact the University Archives for questions about restricted material.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the:
New York University Archives Elmer Holmes Bobst Library 70 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012 Phone: (212) 998-2646 Fax: (212) 995-4225 E-mail: university-archives@nyu.edu
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Records of the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) Medical School Attitude Questionnaire (MSAQ); RISM RG 7, Box and Folder Number(s); New York University Archives; New York University
Location of Materials
Separated Materials note
No materials have been removed from the collection.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions concerning the arrangement, description, and physical interventions taken on this collection prior to 2017 have not yet been recorded. In 2017 an accretion of two folders was added to the collection and incorporated into existing series based on content, although intellectual arrangement does not reflect physical arrangement.