The HCCQ has a long form containing 15 items and a short form containing 6 of the items. There are also variants to the questionnaire. Specifically‚ depending on the issue being examined‚ the HCCQ can be used to assess patients perceptions of the degree to which their specific doctor is autonomy supportive‚ or it can be

used to assess patients perceptions of the degree to which their team of health care providers is autonomy supportive. The latter would be more appropriate for example‚ if patients are seeing several providers within a clinic to deal with a particular problem. For example‚ patients with diabetes may see a physician‚ a nurse

educator‚ and a dietician‚ all working together to treat the disease. If a researcher were interested in the relation between physicians interpersonal style and their patients motivation‚ behavior‚ and health‚ the questionnaire is best used with respect to the individual doctor. If the research question concerns the interpersonal climate of a clinic or group of providers‚ the word providers or practitioners is substituted for physician or doctor. Below‚ you will find the 15-item version of the questionnaire‚ worded in terms of my physician. If you would like to use the 6-item version‚ simply reconstitute the questionnaire using only items # 1‚ 2‚ 4‚ 7‚

10‚ and 14.

This questionnaire contains items that are related to your visits with your doctor. Physicians have different styles in dealing with patients‚ and we would like to know more about how you have felt about your encounters with your physician. Your responses are confidential. Please be honest and candid.

1. I feel that my physician has provided me choices and options.

2. I feel understood by my physician.

3. I am able to be open with my physician at our meetings.

4. My physician conveys confidence in my ability to make changes.

5. I feel that my physician accepts me.

6. My physician has made sure I really understand about my condition and what I need to do.

7. My physician encourages me to ask questions.

8. I feel a lot of trust in my physician.

9. My physician answers my questions fully and carefully.

10. My physician listens to how I would like to do things.

11. My physician handles people's emotions very well.

12. I feel that my physician cares about me as a person.

13. I don't feel very good about the way my physician talks to me.

14. My physician tries to understand how I see things before suggesting a new way to do things.

15. I feel able to share my feelings with my physician.

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Williams‚ G. C.‚ Cox‚ E. M.‚ Kouides‚ R.‚ & Deci‚ E. L. (1999). Presenting the facts about smoking to adolescents: The effects of an autonomy supportive style. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine‚ 153‚ 959-964.

Kasser‚ V. M.‚ & Ryan‚ R. M. (1999). The relation of psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness to health‚ vitality‚ well-being and mortality in a nursing home. Journal of Applied Social Psychology‚ 29‚ 935-954.

Williams‚ G. C.‚ Rodin‚ G. C.‚ Ryan‚ R. M.‚ Grolnick‚ W. S.‚ & Deci‚ E. L. (1998). Autonomous regulation and adherence to long-term medical regimens in adult outpatients. Health Psychology‚ 17‚ 269-276.

Williams‚ G. C.‚ Freedman‚ Z. R.‚ & Deci‚ E. L. (1998). Supporting autonomy to motivate glucose control in patients with diabetes. Diabetes Care‚ 21‚ 1644-1651.

Williams‚ G. C.‚ Grow‚ V. M.‚ Freedman‚ Z. R.‚ Ryan‚ R. M.‚ & Deci‚ E. L. (1996). Motivational predictors of weight loss and weight-loss maintenance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology‚ 70‚115-126.

Williams‚ G. C.‚ GagnŽ‚ M‚ Ryan‚ R‚ M.‚ & Deci‚ E. L. (2000). Facilitating autonomous motivation for smoking cessation. Manuscript under editorial review.

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The HCCQ was designed to be used by patients to report their perceptions of their doctors or their team of health care providers. However‚ it has also been used effectively for ha‎ving trained observers rate the autonomy supportiveness of a provider‚ based on listening to tape recorded interactions between providers and patients.

Observers have some initial training until they are able to achieve high inter-rater reliability with other observers. The rater listens to the tape and responds to each item as if he or she were the patients. The score for the providers rated autonomy support is the average of the 15 ratings. Typically‚ in studies that involve ratings‚ there are at least two raters so as the assure reliability. These can be used in two ways. Either the scores of two or more raters can be averaged‚ or‚ if the analyses are being done by Structural Equation Modelling‚ the average rater score for each of three raters can be used as indicators of the latent variable rated provider autonomy support.

This method was used in the following study.

Williams‚ G. C.‚ & Deci‚ E. L. (in press). Activating patients for smoking cessation through physician autonomy support. Medical Care.