Investigations by Jones and Kahn (1Q64) have shown that patient attitudes toward mental illness and treatment are related to the social class level of the patient, which in turn is related to the type of treatment assigned. Response to treatment as a function of attitude toward hospitalization has had little previous investigation. The present study aimed at determining the relationship of such patient attitudes to aspects of hospital course, such as response to treatment and length of stay, to patient demographic factors, and to attitudes of ward personnel.Consecutive admissions to a psychiatric ward were administered the CPH Factor Attitude Scale (Kahn, Jones, Macdonald, Conners, & Burchard, 1963) upon admission and prior to discharge. The SI male veterans had a mean age of 38.9 years, mean education of 12.2 years, and mean hospital stay of 26.94 days. Modal diagnosis was schizophrenia. Response to treatment was measured by ratings of attendance, participation, benefit from therapy, and overall progress, obtained from the principal therapist of each therapy at discharge. Ratings were correlated with attitude and demographic factors. A comparison of the initial patient attitude with that of the ward personnel was carried out.Patient attitude correlated significantly, but at low magnitudes, with length of hospitalization on three of the five attitude factors. Patients with the most authoritarian view of the hospital, and those with the most negative view of hospitalization, tended to stay the longest. However, patients 1 Reprints and an extended report of this study may be obtained without charge from