title: Evaluating Explicit and Implicit Stigma of Mental Illness in Mental Health Professionals and Medical Students.
abstract: The study investigated explicit and implicit attitudes towards people with mental illness among medical students (non-professionals) with no previous contact with mentally ill patients and psychiatrists and psychotherapists (professionals) who had at least 2 years of professional contact with mentally ill patients. Explicit attitudes where assessed by self-report. Implicit attitudes were measured with the Go/No-Go Association Task, a variant of the Implicit Association Test that does not require the use of a comparison category. Compared to non-professionals, mental health professionals reported significantly higher approach emotions than non-professionals towards people with mental illness, showed a lesser tendency to discriminate against them, and held less restrictive attitudes. Both groups reported negative implicit attitudes towards mentally ill. Results suggest that both non-professionals and professionals display ambivalent attitudes towards people with mental illness and that professional, long-term contact with people with mental illness does not necessarily modify negative implicit attitudes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of Warsaw, Nowowiejska 27, 00-665, Warsaw, Poland, maciej.kopera@wum.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kopera
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suszek
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bonar
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Myszka
authors.forename: Bartłomiej
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gmaj
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ilgen
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wojnar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011044:Poland; D011570:Psychiatry; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012577:Schools, Medical; D057545:Social Stigma; D013240:Stereotyping; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult