An Attribution Model of Public Discrimination Towards Persons with Mental Illness
2003/06/01 by Patrick W. Corrigan, Patrick Corrigan, Fred E. Markowitz +4 · 1,407 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Anger #Attribution #Causality (physics) #Clinical psychology #Coercion (linguistics) #Developmental psychology #Emotions and Moral Behavior #Mental Health Treatment and Access #Mental health #Mental illness #Perception #Pity #Psychology #Psychotherapist #Shame #Social Power and Status Dynamics #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.2307/1519806
published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior 44(2), 162 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2003/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract
In this study, we build on previous work by developing and estimating a model of the relationships between causal attributions (e.g., controllability, responsibility), familiarity with mental illness, dangerousness, emotional responses (e.g., pity, anger, fear), and helping and rejecting responses. Using survey data containing responses to hypothetical vignettes, we examine these relationships in a sample of 518 community college students. Consistent with attribution theory, causal attributions affect beliefs about persons' responsibility for causing their condition, beliefs which in turn lead to affective reactions, resulting in rejecting responses such as avoidance, coercion, segregation, and withholding help. However, consistent with a danger appraisal hypothesis, the effects of perceptions of dangerousness on helping and rejecting responses are unmediated by responsibility beliefs. Much of the dangerousness effects operate by increasing fear, a particularly strong predictor of support for coercive treatment. The results from this study also suggest that familiarity with mental illness reduces discriminatory responses.
Citations
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