The effects of expectancy, professional identity, and behavior upon social rejection

Psychiatric residents (n = 16) and undergraduate students (n = 32) listened to four recorded interviews. Each interview was designed to represent a particular combination of impulse control and distress. Two levels of mental illness expectancy were obtained by changing the context of the interviews. The subjects rated the interviewees on scales of social acceptance and psychopathology. Univariate analyses of variance were used to evaluate the data. The evidence indicated that an individual's behavior must be actually perceived as psychopathological before social rejection will occur.