Studying Clinical Reasoning, Part 2: Applying Social Judgement Theory

Part 1 of this paper (Harries and Harries 2001) examined the reasoning studies of the 1980s and 1990s and critiqued the ethnographic and information-processing approaches, based on stated information use. The need for an approach that acknowledged the intuitive nature of experienced thinkers' reasoning was identified. Part 2 describes such an approach ± social judgement theory ± and presents a pilot application in occupational therapy research. The method used is judgement analysis. The issue under study is that of prioritisation policies in community mental health work. The results present the prioritisation policies of four occupational therapists in relation to managing community mental health referrals.