Popular Conceptions of mental Health

Nunnally, Jum C.

doi:10.1097/00005053-196204000-00011

Cited by 184 publications

(139 citation statements)

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“…For example, Olmsted and Durham (1976) reported that college students rated people with mental illness as more worthless, dangerous, dirty, cold, unpredictable and insincere, than people without mental illness. Likewise, Nunnaly (1961) found that people with mental illness were, compared to the average person, considered more dangerous, cold, dirty, worthless, bad, ignorant, and weak. Cohen and Struening's (1962) Opinions about Mental Illness (OMI) scale was developed by drawing from the expressed opinions of psychiatric hospital workers.…”

Section: Mental Illness Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of the Help-Seeker Stereotype Scale.

Hammer¹,

Vogel²

2017

Stigma and Health

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People's mental image of a person who performs a behavior predicts their willingness to engage in that behavior. In particular, a negative mental image of an individual who seeks mental health services may be an important barrier to seeking help. Therefore, over the course of 5 studies, the authors developed and examined evidence for the reliability and validity of the Help-Seeker Stereotype Scale (HSSS), which is designed to measure the strength of respondents' endorsement of negative stereotypes (e.g., unstable, needy, incompetent) about people who seek help from a psychologist. Using independent samples of students and community members, exploratory and confirmatory analysis in Studies 1 (N ϭ 587), 2 (N ϭ 594), and 3 (N ϭ 353) revealed that the 12-item HSSS reflects a single common source of variance. In Study 4 (N ϭ 225), the HSSS total score was found to correlate in expected ways with 4 theoretically related constructs: mental illness stereotype endorsement (r ϭ .51), public stigma of seeking help (r ϭ .20), stereotype application/harm (r ϭ .37), and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (r ϭ Ϫ.25), providing convergent evidence of validity. Likewise, the HSSS total score accounted for unique variance (10%) in the self-stigma of seeking help beyond the variance accounted for by public stigma of seeking help (11%), providing initial incremental evidence of validity. Study 5 (N ϭ 150) found support for the HSSS' 4-week test-retest reliability (intercorrelation coefficient [2, k] ϭ .88).

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Section: Mental Illness Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of the Help-Seeker Stereotype Scale.

Hammer¹,

Vogel²

2017

Stigma and Health

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“…The high-profile reporting of crimes in which a person with mental illness is the perpetrator and the paucity of stories about people successfully managing mental illness may have contributed to stigmatisation. Nunnally's (1961) seminal work Popular Conceptions of Mental Health demonstrated how the American media presented a distorted picture of those with mental illness, describing them as having 'negative halos' and being regarded as all things bad. One of his main findings was: 'The symptoms of mental illness are exaggerated, the causes and treatments oversimplified and often erroneous, and mental illness usually appears in a context of horror, sin and violence' (p. 233).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the preoccupation of the UK media with associations between mental illness and dangerousness (Barnes & Earnshaw, 1993;Philo et al, 1994;Ward, 1997), and the tendency to vilify those with mental illness (Nunnally, 1961), it seemed plausible that in an area such as Nottingham with a high crime rate, the depictions of mental illness in the local paper might be worse than in a local paper from an area such as Dorset with a lower crime rate. This research does not support such a relationship.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime rates and local newspaper coverage of schizophrenia

Chopra¹,

Doody²

2007

Psychiatr. bull.

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Aims and MethodThe association in the media of mental illness with violence is well established. This study looks at whether there are differences in the portrayal of schizophrenia in the local newspapers of Nottingham, an area with a high crime rate and Dorset, an area with a low crime rate.ResultsWe analysed 98 newspaper articles, 55 from Nottingham and 43 from Dorset, and found no statistically significant difference in the portrayal of schizophrenia. Overall, 36.1% of articles were negative in tone, 56.7% were neutral and 7.2% were positive. In 6 of the 98 articles (6.1%) a person with schizophrenia or their carer was interviewed. These articles were either positive or neutral in tone. Schizophrenia has entered the language as a metaphor.Clinical ImplicationsLocal levels of crime do not appear to influence the portrayal of schizophrenia in local newspapers. Associations with dangerousness continue to predominate and the lay public continues to receive a distorted image of people living with schizophrenia. More interviews with patients and carers might help to address this imbalance. It is important to explore what the word schizophrenia means to patients and carers.

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“…Some authors have found education ineffective (Gum ming & Gumming, 1957;Gatherer & Reid, 1963) yet others have found it effective (Nunnally, 1961). However, there has not, as yet, been a controlled scientific evaluation of an educa tional campaign centred around a specific facUity.…”

Section: Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who's in the lions' den?

Wolff¹,

Pathare²,

Craig³

et al. 1996

Psychiatr. bull.

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Most long-stay patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals under community care policy are being accommodated in suburban communities. The communities' attitudes have a major bearing on the success of this policy. A census of perceptions of psychiatric services was conducted in two areas prior to the opening of long-stay supported houses for the mentally ill. Many respondents (37%) had a negative perception of psychiatric treatment in hospital. Most (82%) had heard of community care policy but few (29%) knew about the imminent opening of supported houses for the long-term mentally ill in their own street.Most respondents (66%) were against the closure of psychiatric hospitals and many saw it as a cost cutting exercise. The majority agreed with the idea of long-stay patients being discharged into smaller units in the community although a substantial minority (20%) thought it would have a bad effect on the local community. An overwhelming majority of respondents (91%) thought it was important for local residents to be given information about new mental health facilities in their neighbourhood. Respondents were worried that patients would not get adequate support and that they might be dangerous. If community care policy is to succeed, attention needs to be paid to the community's opinions and desire for information about local services.Most long-stay patients discharged from psych iatric hospitals under community care policy are being accommodated in houses in suburban communities (Dayson, 1993). Usually, these community homes have been established as unobtrusively as possible and without public consultation, mainly because 'normal' house holders do not declare their disabilities in advance but also for fear of provoking hostile attitudes towards the facilities and because of the belief In a 'normalisation' ideology which assumes that If patients are treated normally, they will behave normally.The attitude of the community may well affect patients' rehabilitation and social integration. Many people get their information about psychia tric services and community care policy from the media and it is likely that their attitudes are, In part, shaped by this. In the Christmas of 1992, Ben Silcock was severely mauled after climbing into the lions' den at London zoo (The Daily Telegraph, August 5th, 1993). Concern for the lack of care for the mentally 111 grew. An editorial in the Evening Standard, 'A lack of real care' (August 12th, 1993) accused the Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley, as having "contrived to vandalise" London's hospitals. It described care in the community policy as "discredited". It quoted Mrs Bottomley as stating that "the pendulum had swung too far in one direction".There have been many reports recently of people with psychiatric problems and severe mental illness harming others. These cases, especially that of Christopher Clunis, were widely reported in the media (e.g. Newsnight, BBC2. June 30th, 1993; The Daily Telegraph, August 5th, 1993) and led to new guidelines from the gov...

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Popular Conceptions of mental Health

Cited by 184 publications

References 0 publications

Development of the Help-Seeker Stereotype Scale.

Development of the Help-Seeker Stereotype Scale.

Crime rates and local newspaper coverage of schizophrenia

Who's in the lions' den?

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