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Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

Published on: January 24, 2020

Implicit self-stigma in people with mental illness.

Nicolas Rüsch¹, Patrick W Corrigan, Andrew R Todd

¹Joint Research Programs in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA. nicolas.ruesch@uniklinik-freiburg.de

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

|February 11, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Mental illness self-stigma can be implicit, operating outside awareness. Both implicit and explicit self-stigma negatively impact quality of life, suggesting interventions should address unconscious biases.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Psychiatry
Social Psychology

Background:

Mental illness often leads to internalized negative stereotypes, causing self-stigma and low self-esteem.
While explicit self-stigma is well-documented, its implicit (automatic) nature remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To assess negative implicit attitudes toward mental illness and implicit self-esteem.
To investigate the relationship between implicit self-stigma and quality of life.

Main Methods:

Utilized two Brief Implicit Association Tests (BIATs) to measure implicit attitudes and self-esteem in 85 individuals with mental illness.
Operationalized implicit self-stigma as the product of implicit measures.
Assessed explicit self-stigma and quality of life via self-report.

Main Results:

Implicit self-stigma was found to be a measurable construct.
Both implicit and explicit self-stigma independently predicted lower quality of life.
These findings held true even after controlling for depressive symptoms, diagnosis, and demographics.

Conclusions:

Implicit self-stigma is a significant factor associated with negative outcomes in individuals with mental illness.
Future interventions aimed at reducing self-stigma should consider and incorporate strategies targeting implicit processes.