Social representations of mental illness among professionals and non-professionals illustrated with the example of schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective: People with psychotic spectrum disorders may experience social exclusion and its negative effects, so it is important to find out the reason for this exclusion. The paper presents social representations of schizophrenia in the context of traits attributed to persons suffering from schizophrenia as compared to healthy persons by groups of non-professionals and professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists). Method: The participants were 230 individuals aged 23-74, all with higher education. They were asked to assess to what extent 30 personality traits can be attributed to people with schizophrenia and to healthy people. Results: The results show significant interactions between the respondents’ professions and their perceptions of mental health. While all the professional groups have more negative views of people suffering from schizophrenia than of healthy people, the most negative assessments of people with schizophrenia are made by non-professionals. There is a significant interaction between one’s profession and perception of mental health as regards positive traits. Only the group of non-professionals considered the level of positive traits displayed by people with schizophrenia as lower than the level displayed by mentally healthy people. Furthermore, non-professionals assessed mentally healthy people more positively than did both groups of professionals. Conclusion: People with schizophrenia may experience negative effects of exclusion. The research results presented in this paper provide the starting point for explaining the reasons for this. The study indicates a tendency to stigmatize schizophrenics, which is most visible in the attribution of less positive features to them compared to healthy people. This mainly applies to non-professionals. The results indicate the need to conduct educational programs and campaigns about mental illnesses, available to the entire society. Educational efforts aimed at the entire society should provide detailed information about mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Education is the basis for shaping and modifying society’s beliefs about people with mental illnesses.