Effects of introductory and abnormal psychology courses on students' attitudes toward mental illness

Attitudes toward Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental Illness in the Central Eastern Cape of South Africa

A survey of attitudes held by a large sample of university students as well as by smaller samples of psychologists, general medical practitioners, members of the public, psychiatric hospital staff and patients in the central eastern Cape toward mental illness and mental health-care service providers was conducted during the early part of 1994. It was found that marked differences existed between the different samples and that the extent of a person's knowledge about mental illness, as well as the degree of contact with mental-health professionals and their services, were important influences on the attitudes of respondents. In particular, third-year psychology students tended to be more negatively disposed to psychiatric treatment than those students in their first year of study. Conversely, the attitudes of final-year students toward the discipline of psychology were more positive than those held by students in their first year of studying psychology. Within both the student and the patient samples, only a small minority indicated that they would first seek help from general medical practitioners if they were ever to contemplate taking their own lives or if they were seriously mentally ill. Psychiatric patients and service providers indicated their confidence in psychiatric treatment and the psychiatrist was considered to be the most appropriate professional to deal with mental illness. Members of the general public were found to be more optimistic than psychologists about the efficacy of psychological and psychiatric treatment, but less so than general medical practitioners. Although mental health-care professionals were viewed in a favourable light, most respondents indicated that they would nevertheless prefer to approach a friend in times of psychological distress.

Putting the person back into psychopathology: an intervention to reduce mental illness stigma in the classroom

OBJECTIVE

This research aims to compare the effectiveness of two methods of teaching psychopathology in reducing stigma toward mental illness. Based on previous stigma research, a first-person, narrative approach was contrasted with traditional, diagnosis-centered education. STUDY 1

METHODS

Participants consisted of 53 undergraduates at a small, public university enrolled in two introductory psychology classes. During six hours of class time focused on psychopathology, one class received the experimental pedagogy while the other served as a control, receiving traditional instruction. Stigma was assessed pre- and post-intervention using a social distance scale and vignette design. Statistical analyses compared means and change scores between the two classes. STUDY 1

RESULTS

Students in the experimental classroom showed a significant decrease in stigma following the intervention, whereas those in the control group showed no change. STUDY 2

METHODS

A follow-up study was conducted to replicate the promising effects demonstrated in Study 1. Two additional classrooms (n = 48) were both exposed to the first-person, narrative pedagogy, and their stigma monitored pre- and post- intervention. STUDY 2

RESULTS

Students reported a significant decrease in stigma following the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, these studies suggest that traditional methods of teaching psychopathology do not lessen mental illness stigma, a serious concern that can potentially be reconciled by incorporating more person-centered instructional methods. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the way psychopathology is taught throughout the mental health field, as well as the practical application of stigma interventions woven into the curriculum.

Effects of a one-hour educational program on medical students' attitudes to mental illness

A new 1-h educational program was developed to change attitudes towards mental illness, and was conducted on 95 first-year medical students in order to investigate its effects on their attitudes towards mental illness, using a pre- and postquestionnaire study design. A similar study without the program was conducted on 94 first-year medical students as controls. After the program, more students replied that they would accept former patients on relatively close social distance items. Favorable attitudinal changes were observed in terms of 'psychiatric services', 'human rights of the mentally ill', 'patients' independence in social life', and 'cause and characteristics of mental illness'. In contrast, no significant change was observed in the control group. These results suggest that attitudes towards mental illness could be changed favorably by this program.

Scales which measure behavioral reactions to illness during hospitalization and attitudes toward hospitals

The construction and statistical evaluation of two scales are described. The first is a Thurstone and Chave type measuring attitudes toward hospitals, and the second an objective measure of behavioral reactions during hospitalization. Split-half reliability (corrected) was high (.90) for the behavioral measure, moderately high (.78) for the attitude scale. Validity was assessed by the known-groups method. Patients designated by head nurses as responding positively to hospitalization and treatment scored significantly higher ( p.001) on both scales than patients reported to be responding in a negative manner.