Women (n = 74) over the age of 40 viewed a videotape presentation in small group settings. There were four versions of the videotape; the version chosen to be shown to each group was determined randomly. Each videotape depicted the same actor, playing the role of physician who was presenting treatment options to a patient who had just been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. These options were lumpectomy with radiation and mastectomy. The videotapes varied along two dimensions: order of presentation of the treatments, and style of the physician (consumer-oriented vs paternalistic). After viewing the videotape participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess their satisfaction with the physician. Women were divided at the median age into an older group and a younger group. A s predicted, younger women were more satisfied with the consumer-oriented physician. Older women did not prefer one physician style over the other. There were also some main effects for age, and some unexpected order of presentation effects.

Three hundred undergraduate students read one of 12 vignettes about a hypothetical breast cancer patient, completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) as they thought she would, and completed a questionnaire (Perception of Medical Patients Questionnaire; PMPQ) designed to elicit their perceptions of her. Vignettes differed according to time since surgery (5 days, 3 months, or 15 months), treatment method (lumpectomy with radiation or mastectomy) and age of the patient (32 or 62 years). As predicted, patients whose surgery occurred most recently were viewed as more distressed than the other patients. Subjects perceived mastectomy patients to have greater sexual problems, be more likely to need counselling, and to be more embarrassed than lumpectomy patients. On the other hand, patients treated with lumpectomy and radiation were rated higher on an index of fatigue than were mastectomy patients. No differences between treatment method were found in terms of the amount of additional emotional support patients would need. Subjects expected younger patients to survive longer and look less ill, but the predicted differences between older and younger patients in terms of likelihood of sexual adjustment problems was not found.

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