Psychology Commons^™

"It's All In Your Head": Diagnostic Overshadowing And Mental Illness, Katya Monarski

Capstone Showcase

Diagnostic overshadowing in mentally ill patients is the misattribution of physical illness to a preexisting mental health condition. This phenomenon contributes to the fact that patients with mental illness to receive diagnoses later, receive less treatment, and live with untreated chronic conditions. The societal attitudes on mental illness associate sufferers with negativity, danger, fear, and strangeness. This stigma could affect the formation of a realistic schema for mentally ill patients, even in a medical context. Doctors who view mental illness with the misinformed stereotypes may only see the patient for that stereotype and not as a whole. A detriment to …

Community-Based Responses To Negative Health Impacts Of Sexual Humanitarian Anti-Trafficking Policies And The Criminalization Of Sex Work And Migration In The Us, Heidi Hoefinger, Jennifer Musto, P.G. Macioti, Anne E. Fehrenbacher, Nicola Mai, Calum Bennachie, Calogero Giametta

Publications and Research

System-involvement resulting from anti-trafficking interventions and the criminalization of sex work and migration results in negative health impacts on sex workers, migrants, and people with trafficking experiences. Due to their stigmatized status, sex workers and people with trafficking experiences often struggle to access affordable, unbiased, and supportive health care. This paper will use thematic analysis of qualitative data from in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork with 50 migrant sex workers and trafficked persons, as well as 20 key informants from legal and social services, in New York and Los Angeles. It will highlight the work of trans-specific and sex worker-led initiatives …

Mental Health Stigma In College Students By Academic Major, Kristen Miller

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Stigma is best defined as the disapproval and shame felt by people who display characteristics not widely accepted in society. Although mental illness has become more prevalent in society through advocacy and awareness campaigns, it fails to be accepted and often individuals may feel shame that prevents them from seeking help (Dyrbye, Eacker, Durning, Brazeau, Moutier, Massie, S., et al, 2015; Givens & Tjia, 2002). Physicians in particular have been shown to have decreased help-seeking behaviors for psychological issues due to fear of professional repercussions (Dyrbye et al., 2015). Physicians also show increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and elevated …

Unmet Expectations In Healthcare Settings: Experiences Of Transgender And Gender Diverse Adults In The Central Great Plains, Heather Meyer

Trans Collaborations Academic Papers

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals face a long-term, multi-faceted process if they choose to begin a gender affirmation journey. Decisions to go on hormone therapy and/or have a surgical procedure necessitate the TGD individual to set up an appointment with a healthcare provider. However, when TGD patients interact with healthcare practitioners, problems can arise. This article documents and categorizes the types of unmet expectations that are common in the TGD patient-healthcare provider social dynamic in the Central Great Plains of the United States. Utilizing a community-based participatory research model, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 TGD individuals about …

Attribution Theory And Increasing Social Support For Women With Postpartum Depression: An Exploration Of Perceived Stability, Onset Controllability, And Effort, Andrea L. Ruybal

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Women with postpartum depression (PPD) deal with the negative impact of depression, as well as the burden of stigma (i.e., negative stereotypes). Guided by the attribution-emotion-action model (Weiner, 1980a), the current studies seek to assess whether emphasizing the temporary nature of PPD (i.e., stability), the uncontrollable development of the ailment (i.e., onset controllability), and whether it appears someone is making an effort to overcome PPD will indirectly result in greater social support, through anger, sympathy, and social support outcome expectations. This approach, utilizing combinations of three different attributions, along with social support outcome expectations as a mediator has not been …

Implicit Attitudes Of Asian American Older Adults Toward Aging, Anita Ho

Scripps Senior Theses

Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz (1998) developed the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a measure of mental associations between target pairs and positive or negative attributes. Highly associative categories yield faster responses than the reverse mental associations, which is thought to reflect implicit attitudes toward stereotypes. The present study investigated the effect of ethnic group on one’s implicit attitudes toward aging and gender stereotypes by comparing two groups of older adults, Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans, that likely hold different culture values. Past qualitative studies have established the existence of mental health stigma in Asian American populations, including negative Asian American perceptions …

"Born Out Of Fear": A Grounded Theory Study Of The Stigma Of Bipolar Disorder For New Mothers, Walker Ladd Ph.D.

The Qualitative Report

Childbirth is an established trigger for the onset of bipolar disorders (BD) in the postpartum period, causing significant pathology and disability. Research has shown that the stigma of mental illness for new mothers is a powerful obstacle to care, preventing women from accessing critical treatment and social support. However, the majority of research has examined the relationship between the stigma and postpartum depression, leaving a gap in knowledge regarding stigma and postpartum bipolar disorder. The problem addressed in this grounded theory study was the lack of knowledge regarding the stigma of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) in the first …

Do Healthcare Students Endorsing Stigma Of Mental Illness Screen For Suicidal Ideation? An Evaluation Of Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors, Dannel K. Petgrave

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stigma of mental illness endorsed by healthcare professionals has been linked to adverse outcomes. This issue underscores the need for early anti-stigma interventions in the context of professional training. The present study measured stigma change and suicide screening behaviors among medical, nursing, and pharmacy students enrolled in an interprofessional Communication Skills for Healthcare Professionals course. The Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS; Evans-Lacko et al., 2010), Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC; Modgill, Patten, Knaak, Kassam, & Szeto, 2014), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Form C (M-C SDS Form C; Reynolds, 1982) was administered at baseline (T …

Decreasing Stigma Against Depression In Chinese International Students, Elizabeth Trader

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Higher levels of stress and a shift in support systems during the transition to another culture can put international students at risk for mood disorders like depression. Previous research supports there is also a higher level of depression stigma within Eastern cultures in comparison to Western cultures (Rao, Feinglass, & Corrigan, 2007). This may account for the strikingly low numbers from the Chinese population that seek and maintain professional counseling services while studying in the U.S. (Yakushko, Davidson, & Sandford-Martens, 2008). The present study sought to determine whether two self-produced Chinese videos regarding information about stigma, symptoms, and treatment of …

Mental Health 101: Teaching Students And Campus Leaders How To Help Those In Crisis, Megan B. Kuhnly

Senior Honors Projects

One in four Americans ages 18 and older live with a diagnosable mental health disorder. Due to this high prevalence it is very likely that everyone will encounter someone dealing with a mental health crisis in his or her lifetime. Many college students will experience a crisis during their four years of study due to the high levels of stress and psychological triggers. However, we are often not taught how to help these individuals and the resources available are not well advertised. This lack of education and awareness leads to many students being forced to suffer alone and their mental …

The Social Progression Of Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder: Post Vietnam And September 11th Attacks, Ellie Mcdonald

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Social Progression of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Vietnam and September 11^th Attacks is an examination on the infrastructure of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’and of the Department of Defense’s lack of clarity and misinformation of the challenges and effects of mental illness within military ranks. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) made the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) after Vietnam. Since then, PTSD has been reevaluate numerous times, to properly define it. This research is a comparative analysis of the misconceptions of PTSD as experienced by Vietnam veterans and the first responders of the September 11^th tragedy. My research charts …

Whose Expertise Is It? Evidence For Autistic Adults As Critical Autism Experts, Kristen Gillespie-Lynch, Steven K. Kapp, Patricia J. Brooks, Jonathan Pickens, Ben Schwartzman

Publications and Research

Autistic and non-autistic adults’ agreement with scientific knowledge about autism, how they define autism, and their endorsement of stigmatizing conceptions of autism has not previously been examined. Using an online survey, we assessed autism knowledge and stigma among 636 adults with varied relationships to autism, including autistic people and nuclear family members. Autistic participants exhibited more scientifically based knowledge than others. They were more likely to describe autism experientially or as a neutral difference, and more often opposed the medical model. Autistic participants and family members reported lower stigma. Greater endorsement of the importance of normalizing autistic people was associated …

This Is Us Saying Who We Are: Speaking The Rhetoric Of Mental Disability, Renuka Uthappa

Wayne State University Dissertations

People with mental disabilities, or what are sometimes referred to as “mental illnesses,” face stigma when they interact with the public. To fight this stigma, the members of a small, grassroots, advocacy organization known as the Speakers Bureau travel to high school and college classrooms narrating their experiences with mental disability. They do so to replace culturally circulating stereotypes regarding such disability with more accurate and positive images. This dissertation is an auto-ethnographic exploration of the rhetoric of the Speakers Bureau. Through rhetorical analysis of members’ classroom speeches, of interviews with each speaker, and of the speaker’s self- assessment of …

The Effect Of Clinician Competence And Religiosity On The Trainee Clinician’S Ability To Identify Problematic Sexual Behavior, Cody Butcher

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Models in psychology do not consider the concept of sex addiction the same way as other substance or behavior addictions. For example, sex addiction, which is not a DSM-5 disorder, is often assigned as a label to clients based off of high frequency of sexual behavior. Despite sex addiction not being a diagnosable disorder, sex addiction therapists are conducting treatment with people who identify as sex addicts. Due to this lack of a definition, previous research has found that clinicians may identify sex addiction in clients based on their own preconceived worldviews of what types of sexual behaviors or frequencies …

The Development Of Mental Illness Stigma: The Role Of Perceived Social Support, Social Proximity, And Help-Seeking Behavior, Emily Kathryn Reed

Online Theses and Dissertations

The current study sought to explore the relationships mental illness stigmatization may have with perceived social support, proximity, and help-seeking behavior. Based on findings from previously conducted studies, hypotheses were formulated in order to further analyze how perceived social support, proximity, and help-seeking behavior may impact an individual's tendency to stigmatize mental illness. 203 Eastern Kentucky students participated in this study to test these hypotheses. These participants took part in an online study that measured their perceived social support based on their family environment, their proximity to those with a mental illness or mental illness in general, their attitudes regarding …

Examining Preference Of Home-Based Telemental Health Among Rural Veterans, Paige Dixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rural veterans face significant disparities to health care that have resulted in lower physical and mental health related quality of life when compared to their urban counterparts (Weeks et al., 2006). Such disparities are further complicated by the six-fold increase in prevalence of mental health diagnoses among Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans (Seal et al., 2009). These rising rates are particularly relevant to rural veterans as they represent 41% of the overall Veteran Health Administration enrollees, but only 19% of the general population (U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). Rural veterans face three …

Stigmatizing Attitudes Towards Men And Women Combat Veterans With Combat Related Ptsd, Heather L. Caldwell

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Veterans with PTSD experience stigma and discrimination. The extent to which women combat veterans with PTSD may experience stigma and discrimination has yet to be investigated. This is critical given the increasing number of women veterans exposed to combat and combat trauma. Level of familiarity may affect stigmatizing beliefs. Gender may also affect stigmatizing beliefs. To assess this, 126 undergraduate students (men, n = 69) were randomly assigned to view videos of a man or woman veteran describing combat experience and their PTSD symptoms. Participants completed questionnaires assessing PTSD symptoms, level of familiarity with veterans, and stigmatizing attitudes toward the …

Diminished Quality Of Life Among Women Affected By Ebola, Jessi Hanson, Alexis Decosimo, Megan Quinn

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

This article analyzes data collected from Liberian women afflicted by the Ebola virus disease, survivors of the virus and noninfected persons living in Ebola-affected homes. This research is one of the first statistical analyses examining factors diminishing quality of life: negative experiences, stigma, and psychosocial symptoms among females affected by the virus after the outbreak. The research presents a thorough literature review, including research related to other infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, to inform the gap in studies on Ebola’s effects on quality of life. Women who are Ebola virus disease survivors demonstrate significant differences in stigma and psychosocial stress when …

Interventions For Problem Gamblers In The Correctional System, Nigel E. Turner Ph.D., Flora Matheson

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The prevalence rates of problem gambling in the adult correctional population are 5 to 10 times higher than those found in the general population. The purpose of this study is to examine the type of interventions used to deal with this population. We conducted a combination of literature review and key informant study to examine the state of programming for problem gambling for clients who experience incarceration. The published literature on this topic is remarkably sparse. In fact only two peer reviewed published studies were identified that formally evaluated a treatment program for problem gambling for clients in these settings. …

Anti-Fat Attitudes And Weight Bias Internalization: An Investigation Of How Bmi Impacts Perceptions, Opinions And Attitudes, Laurie Schrider

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Americans hold negative and judgmental attitudes towards obese and overweight individuals and these anti-fat attitudes and weight stigma have become a damaging form of discrimination. The internalization of weight bias and anti-fat attitudes contributes to negative health outcomes including: feelings of devalue, self-hate, anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction and eating disturbances. The purpose of this study was to investigate weight bias internalization in individuals who perceive themselves as overweight as well as to examine differences in anti-fat attitudes among normal and overweight individuals. A sample of 202 male and females completed an online survey that assessed anti-fat attitudes via the Anti-Fat …

Burnout And Depression: Label-Related Stigma, Help-Seeking, And Syndrome Overlap, Renzo Bianchi, Jay Verkuilen, Romain Brisson, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

We investigated whether burnout and depression differed in terms of public stigma and help-seeking attitudes and behaviors. Secondarily, we examined the overlap of burnout and depressive symptoms. A total of 1046 French schoolteachers responded to an Internet survey in November–December 2015. The survey included measures of public stigma, help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, burnout and depressive symptoms, self-rated health, neuroticism, extraversion, history of anxiety or depressive disorder, social desirability, and sociodemographic variables.The burnout label appeared to be less stigmatizing than the depression label. In either case, however, fewer than 1% of the participants exhibited stigma scores signaling agreement with the proposed …

Burnout And Depression: Label-Related Stigma, Help-Seeking, And Syndrome Overlap, Renzo Bianchi, Jay Verkuilen, Romain Brisson, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

We investigated whether burnout and depression differed in terms of public stigma and help-seeking attitudes and behaviors. Secondarily, we examined the overlap of burnout and depressive symptoms. A total of 1046 French schoolteachers responded to an Internet survey in November–December 2015. The survey included measures of public stigma, help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, burnout and depressive symptoms, self-rated health, neuroticism, extraversion, history of anxiety or depressive disorder, social desirability, and socio-demographic variables. The burnout label appeared to be less stigmatizing than the depression label. In either case, however, fewer than 1% of the participants exhibited …

Impact Of Stigma On Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help For Depression, Anna Marie Dierks

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Depression is the most common mental illness, affecting almost seven percent of Americans each year. Although mental illness treatment through professional psychological services has been proven to be effective, underutilization of these services is high. Underutilization of seeking help could lead to serious consequences, such as suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults aged 15-34 years old and in 2013 the highest rates of suicide were among adults aged 45-64 years old. Stigma has been viewed as a barrier to seeking professional psychological help.

Two age groups were chosen for this research due …

Veterans' Perceptions Of Military Stigma And The Shame Associated With Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress, Alexander J. Buelna

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Military stigma is a heavy burden of social stigma internalized by veterans who are diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during post-deployment psychological screening. PTSD is classified as a mental disorder associated with widespread reluctance to seek medical assistance. Among military veterans who suffer from combat-related posttraumatic stress (PTS), military stigma is considered a widespread problem. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore veterans' perceptions of various aspects of military stigma, including post-deployment psychological screening, the diagnosis of PTSD, and factors associated with reluctance to seek medical assistance for PTS. In-depth interviews were conducted with a convenience sample …

"There’S More To Us Than This:" A Qualitative Study Of Black Young Adults’ Perceptions Of Media Portrayals Of Hiv, Maya Corneille, Anna Lee, Roseina Britton, Judith C. Barker

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The extent to which the targeted group attends to and is engaged by HIV/STI prevention messages is one component of effective health communication. Through an empirical examination of the cumulative perceptions of HIV/STI prevention media messages targeted to Black youth and young adults, this qualitative study privileges the voices of Black/ African American young adults as a group that is frequently targeted in HIV prevention campaigns. Semi-structured interviews with 23 Black/African American young adults yielded key themes that suggest barriers to effective health communication. Traditionally, health promotion has advocated for targeted messages as a means to increase risk perception and …

Explore The Relationship Among Lung Cancer Stigma, Social Support, And Psychosocial Distress, Lisa Maggio

Theses and Dissertations--Nursing

There is longstanding causal relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Smoke-free policies and anti-smoking campaigns have been linked to the decline in smoking acceptance and contribute to the unintended consequence of stigmatizing smokers. Lung cancer is viewed as a self-inflicted disease and patients’ feel judged in a manner different from other cancers affecting social interactions between family, friends, and healthcare professionals. Lung cancer stigma contributes to depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, guilt, shame, blame, threatens a person’s social identity, and limits social support that deeply affects patients and their support persons.

This dissertation contains a review of the literature related …

Hiv Stigma Within Religious Communities In Rural India, Krutarth J. Vyas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of HIV/AIDS-related stigma within religious communities in rural Gujarat, India. This study used the hidden distress model of HIV stigma and the HIV peer education model as conceptual frameworks to examine a rural population sample of 100 participants. Regression analysis was conducted to test if school education had a moderating effect on the relationship between illness as punishment for sin (IPS) and HIV stigma. Religiosity was tested for mediating effects on the relationship between early religious involvement (ERI) and HIV stigma. The results of this study indicated that single unemployed men …

The Epidemic Of Mental And Neurological Health, Mohsyn I. Malik

Psychology Publications

This paper composes an image of modern mental and neurological health issues and looks to draw links to the current epidemic based on research and studies found online the internet and off-line. The goal is to examine what may be the underlying problem for a lot of these increases in mental health issues and neurodegenerative diseases and what are some promising clinical and sociocultural advances that may help. It explores problems such as the negative impact of the pharmaceutical giants, the increase in apathy in the work place and the general stigma towards mental disease. Through current research, the use …

Have You Hugged A Soldier Today? Veterans Struggle With Invisible Wounds Of War From Vietnam To Afghanistan, Gabe Mora

History Theses

the misinformation about Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in American society has lead to the stigmatization and discrimination of veterans since the war in Vietnam. PTSD was not a formal diagnosis until 1980, resulting in negative public perception of veterans suffering with this mental illness. Even today as research and information about the disorder has become increasingly available to the public, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are facing the same discrimination's as the veterans of Vietnam during their transitions back to civilian life.

More Than "Mentally-Ill": Differentiating Help-Seeking From Mental-Illness Stigma In A College Population, Jeritt Ross Tucker

Jeritt R. Tucker

Two disparate and long-standing lines of research exist: studies of the stigma of mental illness (e.g., Link et al., 1989) and studies of the self-stigma of seeking psychological help (e.g., Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006). While some researchers implicitly treat these two constructs as synonymous (e.g., Corrigan, Watson, & Barr, 2006), others make the argument that they are theoretically and empirically distinct (e.g., Ben-Porath, 2002). To help clarify this debate, the present investigation examined measures of both constructs among 729 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern University. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that, while there is a strong correlation between the …