The Psychology of Attitudes

Attitudes define who we are and shape the world around us. They are evaluations of the people around us, objects, events, and ideas (Brock & Green, 2005). The way we feel about a particular thing, such as smoking, is all a part of our attitude. Included in these attitudes is how we view mental illness. There is a widespread stigma that everyone with a mental illness should be medicated or that they are crazy. This stigma leads people to fear for themselves and their loved ones and it is the cause of discrimination worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).

Some people have strong feelings toward mental illness (Borinstein, 1992). This is typically the case of people who are loved ones. Husbands or wives who have to deal with spouses see the good and the bad and this is an attitude that is predominantly based on affect. Dealing with depression or bouts of mania causes a lot of caretakers to revaluate their relationship because everything tends to be a whirlwind. For the consumer of a mental illness, they know how it is to be on what could only be the other side of hell, because recovery is only recovery and never a cure. A person’s attitude based on affect may have the view that they are scared of their loved one when they are manic.

The other side is the cognitive attitude, which involves a person’s belief. In other words, the stigmas surrounding people who are affected by a mental illness come from this attitude. These are the statements that are sometimes echoed on television news programs every time there is a mass shooting or other events that people cannot comprehend. People say, “People with mental illnesses are dangerous.” As a result, prejudice is often an outcome of such beliefs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).

When tragic events happen, news reporters typically ask witnesses or even random people things like, “what do you think of the dangerous affect of mental illness?” The problem with a question such as that is that it is misleading. It leads the person being asked the question that mental illness is dangerous. Therefore, they will answer the same way the question is asked because it seems as if the interviewer believes the question. A better way to ask the question would be, “how do you feel about mental illness?” It’s an open-ended question that doesn’t lead the person one-way or the other. There is no influence being pushed either positively or negatively and the person is able to formulate their thoughts on their own. An issue with asking such a question is running into those who have a nonattitude with this particular issue. They may not feel either way about it or may not even care. Therefore, an answer is given on the spot without much thought (Brock & Green, 2005). If a person has negative attitudes about mental illness and they do not want to seem mean or heartless, they may give an answer that is socially desirable (Brock & Green, 2005).

Single-item measures are easy to get, but they can have biases. There’s also a chance that they can be ambiguous. In this case, researchers could use multiple-item measures. This way, the impact of imperfections can be minimized. Also, an unbiased single-measure may be too narrow. Mental illness stigma is generally considered a multi-dimensional phenomenon (Golberstein, Eisenberg, & Gollust, 2008). Multiple item measures capture more information than single-item measures (Bergkvist & Rossiter, 2007). If I really wanted to know how people feel about mental illness, it would be better to gauge their responses by multiple items because the feelings aren’t always black and white. Any errors in responses would cancel each other out and leave us with a more reliable and accurate view on how people feel (Brock & Green, 2005).

References

Bergkvist, L. I., & Rossiter, J. (2007). The predictive validity of multiple-item versus single-item measures of the same constructs. Journal of Marketing Research , 44 (2), 175-184. ↩
Borinstein, A. B. (1992). Public attitudes toward persons with mental illness. Health Affairs , 11 (3), 186-196. ↩
Brock, T. C., & Green, M. C. (2005). Persuasion: PSychological Insights and Perspectives. Sage Publications, Inc. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Attitudes Toward Mental Illness: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors, National Institute of Mental Health, The Carter Center Mental Health Program, Atlanta.
Golberstein, E., Eisenberg, D., & Gollust, S. E. (2008). Perceived Stigma and Mental Health Care Seeking. Psychiatric Services , 59 (4). ↩