This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Nieradzik, K. Articles by Cochrane, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nieradzik, K. Articles by Cochrane, R. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Mental Health Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Public Attitudes Towards Mental Illness- the Effects of Behaviour, Roles and Psychiatric Labels

Department of Psychology, University of Birmingham

Raymond Cochrane

Department of Psychology, University of Birmingham

A questionnaire to assess various elements of public attitudes towards the mentally ill was given to 108 subjects. 5 hypotheses were tested.

1. Public attitudes towards mental illness are more rejecting than accepting.

2. Social rejection increases with increasing severity of disturbance in behaviour.

3. Public attitudes towards the mentally ill are related to social class as measured by occupational status and to age of the respondent.

4. Rejection of the mentally ill is decreased by the availability of a non-deviant alternative label.

5. Attitudes of the general population towards the mentally ill will be influenced by the label of mental illness as well as by behaviour indicative of mental illness.

All the hypotheses were confirmed with one exception — negative public attitudes were not found to be related to social class as measured by occupational status. Public attitudes towards the mentally ill are more diverse than previous research would imply. Possible future research directions are discussed.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 31, No. 1, 23-33 (1985)
DOI: 10.1177/002076408503100103


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Shulman and B. Adams A Comparison of Russian and British Attitudes towards Mental Health Problems in the Community International Journal of Social Psychiatry, December 1, 2002; 48(4): 266 - 278. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. Cormack and A. Furnham Psychiatric Labelling, Sex Role Stereotypes and Beliefs About the Mentally Ill International Journal of Social Psychiatry, December 1, 1998; 44(4): 235 - 247. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. Arkar and D. Eker Effect of Psychiatric Labels On Attitudes Toward Mental Illness in a Turkish Sample International Journal of Social Psychiatry, September 1, 1994; 40(3): 205 - 213. [Abstract] [PDF]