Clinician's response style. A source of variation and bias in clinical judgments.

The term response style is used to indicate the tendency for an observer to respond in a stereotyped way which is independent of that which he is observing. A study is described, designed to detect differences in response style among psychiatrists dealing with 42 different items of clinical data. Item sheets completed by 5 psychiatric registrars (residents) in relation to their patients were examined. There was a statistically significant tendency for these clinicians to show idiosyncratic consistencies in their individual responses, indicating differences in their styles of responding. A review of the literature suggests that response style may be an important but hitherto overlooked source of interobserver variation in clinical judgment in psychiatry as well as in other fields of medicine.