Question

Consider how attitudes to mental disorders may differ from attitudes to other forms of disease or illness. 1. What factors may contribute to such differences in attitudes, how might such attitudes affect the experience of mental illness for people suffering these conditions and their families?

Answer 1

Ans) Attitudes toward mental illness vary among individuals, families, ethnicities, cultures, and countries. Cultural and religious teachings often influence beliefs about the origins and nature of mental illness, and shape attitudes towards the mentally ill.

- Respondents familiar with mental illness displayed prosocial reactions more frequently than those without any personal experience. They also tended to react less fearfully.

- There were only small differences, if any, as far as the tendency to respond with aggression was concerned. People with personal experience tended less to adopt an antipathetic and distancing attitude towards individuals suffering from mental disorders.

- All the more persuasive as we were able to demonstrate this relationship between personal experience with and attitude towards mental illness for two independent samples.

- There were indications that personal exposure to mental illness exerts a positive influence on a person's attitude towards the disorder and that our findings were not merely the results of possible selection effects, that is to say, that individuals with a more positive attitude towards the mentally ill would have been more inclined to stay in touch with the latter, therefore having greater experience with mental illness.