Related Experiment Videos
Three strategies for changing attributions about severe mental illness
P W Corrigan1, L P River, R K Lundin
1University of Chicago Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Tinley Park, IL 60477, USA. p-corrigan@uchicago.edu
Schizophrenia Bulletin
|May 17, 2001
Summary
Education and direct contact interventions effectively improved public attitudes toward mental illness, specifically depression and psychosis. Protest strategies showed no significant impact on stigmatizing beliefs about mental disorders.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness remain a significant public health concern.
- Understanding effective interventions to combat mental illness stigma is crucial for improving patient outcomes and societal integration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of education, contact, and protest strategies in altering public attributions about severe mental illnesses.
- To compare the impact of these interventions on perceptions of psychiatric disorders versus physical disabilities and other conditions.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial involving 152 community college students.
- Participants were assigned to education, contact, protest, or a control condition.
- Attributions towards depression, psychosis, cocaine addiction, mental retardation, cancer, and AIDS were assessed before and after interventions.
Main Results:
- Education improved attributions for all psychiatric groups but not for physical disabilities.
- Contact interventions led to greater improvements in attributions for depression and psychosis compared to education.
- Protest strategies did not yield significant changes in attributions for any group.
Conclusions:
- Education and contact are viable strategies for reducing stigma associated with mental illness, particularly severe conditions like psychosis and depression.
- The findings suggest that direct interaction (contact) may be more potent than information dissemination (education) for specific psychiatric disorders.
- Protest strategies appear ineffective in modifying public attributions regarding mental illness.