Haslam's (2003) folk psychiatry model asserts that laypersons use three modes of thought (explanatory modes) in explaining the behavior of individuals identified as having mental illness: moralizing, which attributes a reason (motive) - and therefore personal responsibility - for behavior; medicalizing, which attributes behavior to a biological essence outside of the individual's control; and psychologizing, which attributes a reason (motive) for behavior but also offers a cause for the reason itself, thus attenuating personal responsibility. The present research hypothesizes that 1) laypersons (mental health nonprofessionals) will have more stigmatizing reactions to a vignette protagonist who exhibits behavior characteristic of the DSM-IV-TR diagnosis Schizophrenia, compared to a protagonist who exhibits no such behavior; 2) the effect of including in the vignette information on the protagonist's adverse childhood experiences will be moderated such that it has a more stigma-reducing effect in the presence of schizophrenia symptoms that in its absence, and 3) this moderation will in turn be mediated by increases in psychologizing and decreases in medicalizing and moralizing. The design is a 2 x 2 between-participants factorial experiment with symptomatic content (schizophrenia symptoms vs. no symptoms) and childhood experiences (adverse vs. benign) as independent variables. The stigma outcome variables are likability (Scale of General Likability; Anson, in preparation) and perceptions of dangerousness (Attribution Questionnaire (AQ), Fear/Dangerousness Subscale; Brown, 2008). The explanatory modes are measured by the Medicalizing-Moralizing-Psychologizing Coding System (MMPCS), which is introduced in the present study. Results show that schizophrenia symptoms increased perceptions of dangerousness and medicalizing, and reduced moralizing. Adverse childhood experiences increased perceptions of dangerousness and psychologizing, and reduced medicalizing. The predicted moderation effect did not reach significance. The predicted mediation effects were not observed. Findings suggest that efforts to reduce mental illness stigma by providing information about adverse childhood experiences may have the ironic effect of increasing fear and perceptions of dangerousness. Additional implications are discussed and a program of future research is proposed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2013. / November 20, 2012. / Adverse Childhood Experiences, Folk Psychiatry, Medicalizing, Mental Illness Stigma, Moralizing, Psychologizing / Includes bibliographical references. / Tomi Gomory, Professor Directing Dissertation; E. Ashby Plant, University Representative; Neil Abell, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_254417 |
| Contributors | Anson, Joseph D. (authoraut), Gomory, Tomi (professor directing dissertation), Plant, E. Ashby (university representative), Abell, Neil (committee member), College of Social Work (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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