Ideology, personality, and institutional policy in the mental hospital.

Measuring Stigma Toward Mental Illness: Development and Application of the Mental Illness Stigma Scale1

“…In previous efforts to measure attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill, researchers have utilized responses to vignettes (Cumming & Cumming, 1957;D'Arcy & Brockman, 1976;Hall, Brockington, Levings, & Murphy, 1993;Phelan et al, 2000) and social distance scales (Albrecht, Walker, & Levy, 1982;Bogardus, 1933;Eker, 1989;Kirk, 1974;Link, Phelan, Bresnahan, Stueve, & Pescosolido, 1999;Phillips, 1966). Although five previously developed Likert-type measures have been used to assess attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill (Antonak & Livneh, 1988;Baker & Schulberg, 1967;Cohen & Struening, 1959, 1960Gilbert & Levinson, 1956;Nunnally, 1961;Taylor & Dear, 1981), none of these scales were guided by stigma theory.…”

“…The earliest of these scales, Gilbert and Levinson's (1956) Custodial Mental Illness Ideology scale, was designed exclusively to assess the attitudes of mental health professionals concerning the causes and treatment of their patients' mental illnesses. Nunnally's (1961) Mental Health Information Questionnaire was created to assess public misconceptions about mental health, focusing on beliefs about the causes and cures of mental illness (e.g., beliefs that mental illness can be prevented or alleviated by keeping busy and thinking pleasant thoughts, that little can be done to cure or treat mental illness).…”

“…Cohen and Struening's (1962) Opinions About Mental Illness scale is the most widely used scale for assessing public attitudes. Like Gilbert and Levinson's (1956) scale, this scale was originally designed to assess the mental health ideology of psychiatric hospital personnel, drawing heavily from the previous two scales (Gilbert & Levinson, 1956;Nunnally, 1961). The focus was measuring multiple dimensions of attitudes toward the mentally ill, from an authoritarian view that people with mental illness are inferior and require coercive handling, to a benevolent and paternalistic view of the mentally ill. Baker and Schulberg's (1967) Community Mental Health Ideology scale was designed to assess the beliefs of mental health professionals about their roles, responsibilities, and treatment options related to the community mental health movement.…”

“…While Baker and Schulberg's scale is rarely used, items from it were adapted for Taylor and Dear's (1981) scale of Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill. Taylor and Dear's scale was designed specifically to assess public attitudes and beliefs about the containment of people with mental illness. The scale was constructed primarily by adapting items from Gilbert and Levinson (1956), Cohen and Struening (1962), and Baker and Schulberg.…”

Theoretical Modeling to Predict Violence in Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients

“…Conceptual problems have been identified in the current research on psychiatric patient violence such as the lack of a unified theory from which intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental variables influencing patient behavior are identified (Morrison, 1988). In the late 1950s and early 1960s the relationship of the institutional environment and the behavior of staff members and patients within them was explored extensively (Appleby, Ellis, Rogers, & Zimmerman, 1961;Gilbert & Levinson, 1956;Goffman, 1962;Stanton & Schwartz;1954;Stotland & Kobler, 1965), resulting in a body of research emphasizing the relationship of the social organization with nursing staffs' effectiveness in patient care (Canter, 1963;Cohen & Streuning, 1965;Gerjuoy, Rosenberg, Bond, McDevitt, & Balough, 1963). However, recent researchers of violent behavior have ignored the effect of environmental or interpersonal factors that influence patient behavior.…”