The Reliability And Validity Of The Thin Slice Technique: Observational Research On Video Recorded Medical Interactions

THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE THIN SLICE TECHNIQUE:OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH ON VIDEO RECORDED MEDICAL INTERACTIONS byTANINA S. FOSTERMay 2014Advisor: Dr. Shlomo SawilowskyMajor: Evaluation and ResearchDegree: Doctor of PhilosophyIntroduction: Observational research using the thin slice technique has beenroutinely incorporated in observational research methods, however there is limitedevidence supporting use of this technique compared to full interaction coding. Thepurpose of this study was to determine if this technique could be reliability coded, ifratings are consistent between the first, second and third slice, and if they arerepresentative of full interactions.Methods: Three 30-second thin slices were sampled from the beginning, middleand end of a full-length video-recorded patient/physician interaction collected a part of alarger research study in a low income urban primary care clinic. Thin slice excerpts andfull interactions were rated on five dimensions (liking, attention, coordination, trust andrapport) using a nine point Likert scale ranging from ‘none’ to ‘high’ by eightindependent coders. Reliability was assessed using the intraclass correlation measure,validity of thin slices was assessed using the Friedman test (non-parametric equivalentof the Repeated measures ANOVA), and the comparison of thin slice coding to full