Strategies for reducing stigma toward persons with mental illness.
Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: Corrigan and Watson have written an excellent overview on the impact of stigma on the lives of persons with severe mental illness (SMI). In this commentary, we would like to expand on one aspect of that article, namely strategies for reducing stigma toward persons with SMI. Corrigan and Watson have identified three approaches for reducing stigma: protest, education, and contact. Although these approaches have promise, they are not without weaknesses. A potential disadvantage of using protest (i.e., telling the public to stop believing negative views about mental illness) is that it may actually increase, rather than decrease stigma. In fact, research has shown that instructing individuals to ignore or suppress negative thoughts and attitudes towards a particular group can have paradoxical rebound effects; stigma will be augmented rather than reduced (1). To examine this issue with respect to psychiatric stigma, we instructed participants to either suppress or not to suppress their stereotypes of persons with SMI and evaluated the effects on stigma-related attitudes and behaviors (2). The results showed that suppression instructions did reduce negative attitudes, but did not impact behavior toward persons with SMI, and that the paradoxical rebound effects did not occur. This suggests that stereotype suppression may have modest, although limited effects, on psychiatric stigma.
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Authors: David L Penn, Shannon M Couture
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W71345193