An experimental investigation of the impact of biological and psychological causal explanations on anxious and depressed patients’ perception of a person with panic disorder

The Effect of Combined Etiological Information on Attitudes About Mental Disorders Associated with Violent and Nonviolent Behaviors

“…Consistent with attribution theory, information about biological causes decreases the tendency to blame people with mental illness for their condition (Boysen, 2011;Boysen & Vogel, 2006;Crisafulli, Von Holle, & Bulik, 2008;Deacon & Baird, 2008;Lincoln et al, 2008). However, biological information also leads people to doubt the ability of individuals to recover from mental illness (Deacon & Baird, 2008;Lam & Salkovskis, 2007;Lam, Salkovskis, & Warwick, 2005;Lincoln et al, 2008;Phelan, 2005). Although the findings are less consistent, biological information has also led to increased perceptions of people with mental illness as dangerous (Lam & Salkovskis, 2007;Lam et al, 2005;Read & Law, 1999), unpredictable (Read & Law, 1999), and requiring coercive actions (Phelan, 2005).…”

“…One explanation for this unexpected finding is the fact that Study 1 emphasized attitude change after exposure to causal information. Other studies on the negative effect of biological beliefs have been correlational (Read & Law, 1999;Schnittker, 2008) or have focused on postintervention attitudes (Lam et al, 2005;Lam & Salkovskis, 2007). There also may have been a floor effect; stigma toward the nonviolent case may have started too low to allow meaningful reductions.…”

“…However, biological information also leads people to doubt the ability of individuals to recover from mental illness (Deacon & Baird, 2008;Lam & Salkovskis, 2007;Lam, Salkovskis, & Warwick, 2005;Lincoln et al, 2008;Phelan, 2005). Although the findings are less consistent, biological information has also led to increased perceptions of people with mental illness as dangerous (Lam & Salkovskis, 2007;Lam et al, 2005;Read & Law, 1999), unpredictable (Read & Law, 1999), and requiring coercive actions (Phelan, 2005). These results suggest that past antistigma efforts by groups such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness could have actually increased some forms of stigma by portraying mental illnesses as brain diseases.…”

The effects of causal beliefs and binge eating on the stigmatization of obesity

“…The Patient Attitudes Questionnaire (PAQ) previously was modified by Lam and Salkovskis 6 and is based on the clinical assessment questionnaire (CAQ), used to measure clinicians beliefs about treatment and prognosis. The authors' adaptation included clarifying the language to be less technical and more appropriate for nonclinicians.…”

“…We hypothesized that the psychological condition would yield the least amount of bias and the best prognosis for recovery, as it did in the work conducted by Lam and Salkovskis. 6 We expected more stigma toward obesity with presence of binge eating than toward obesity without binge eating, as people may blame obese persons more if they are engaging in binge eating behavior. We expected that binge eating and the label of biological addiction would yield the most stigma and the worst prognosis, as this includes both the negative attributes held toward a food addiction and binge eating behavior.…”