ATTITUDES TOWARDS INDIVIDUALS WITH
MENTAL DISORDERS: THE EFFECT OF CAREER CHOICE AND PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
WITH
PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES
By
Carrie H. Cahal, M.A.
Supervised by Dr. Lauren Scharff
Defended December 2007
ABSTRACT
Persons with mental disorders often face stigmatization that negatively
impacts life and hinders recovery, so associated factors need to be
identified in order to create effective anti-stigma methods. The
current study investigated how field of study (Psychology, Nursing,
Business) and familiarity with psychological services (none,
acquaintance/friend, family member, self) influenced stigmatizing
attitudes. Participants (N = 210) were required to be at a junior or
senior level of classification and were recruited through contact with
instructors who were willing to give students extra credit or course
credit for taking part in the study. Seventy-eight Psychology students
(27 males, 51 females), 60 Nursing students (six males, 53 females, one
unidentified), and 72 Business students (46 males, 26 females) took the
Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) survey to evaluate
stigmatizing attitudes (four measures: Authoritarianism, Benevolence,
Social Restrictiveness, and Community Mental Health Ideology), the
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to explore empathic differences
between majors, and completed a demographic questionnaire asking for
basic facts such as age, ethnicity, gender, and college classification.
A 3 (field of study) x 4 (familiarity with psychological services:
none, friend/acquaintance, family member, self) between-subjects
multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed to
determine how these factors influenced stigmatizing attitudes while
controlling for the covariates of empathy and gender. Psychology and
Nursing students were found to be more empathetic than Business
students. The results revealed Psychology participants were less
stigmatizing than Business students. Nursing students were less
stigmatizing than Business students on two stigma measures (Benevolence
and Authoritarianism) and similar to Business participants on two
measures (Community Mental Health Ideology and Social Restrictiveness).
Nursing students and Psychology students did not significantly differ
on any of the four stigma measures. The current study also found that,
typically, as contact with persons with mental disorders increased,
stigmatizing attitudes declined. Additionally, persons familiar with
counseling and persons familiar with mental disorders never
significantly differed in attitudes towards individuals with mental
disorders, and both groups held more positive attitudes towards those
with mental disorders than persons who had no experience with
psychological services. The influence of the media was also explored in
the current study and results revealed that more stigmatizing views
towards individuals with mental disorders were found with participants
who indicated the media had strongly influenced their attitude. Results
offer support for anti-stigma campaigns that focus on education and
promoting contact.
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Lauren Scharff's Research Interests web page.