Title:
The public's perceptions of dangerousness in people thought to be diagnosed with mental illness and substance abuse
Author:
Katherine DellaPorta
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2011
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
reformatted digital
Abstract:
Even though the incidence of violence is not significantly higher for people with severe mental illness (Elbogen and Johnson, 2009), the general public has held the view that people with mental illness are more dangerous than the general population (Link et al., 1999; Pescosolido et al., 1999; Phelan et al., 2000). The present study investigated: 1) the perceived dangerousness of persons with mental illness compared to the perceived dangerousness of persons with substance abuse issues, beliefs in illusory correlations, and superstitions; 2) the impact of interpersonal contact on perceptions of dangerousness in persons with mental illness; and 3) the impact of the media on perceptions of dangerousness in persons with mental illness. The sample consisted of 244 adults solicited from Craig's List. The results revealed that respondents perceived persons with substance abuse issues to be more dangerous than persons with mental illness and endorsed the illusory correlations to a greater extent than the dangerousness of those with mental illness. Respondents believed in the dangerousness of persons with mental illness to a greater extent than they believed in the superstition items. Regarding the impact of interpersonal contact, only personal experience with people with mental illness was related to lower perceptions of dangerousness. In terms of the association between media exposure and perceptions of dangerousness of persons with mental illness, the more television news reports or the more entertainment news programs people watched, the more they believed in the dangerousness of persons with mental illness. Possible explanations for findings were provided along with directions for future research.
Subject:
Mental illness--Public opinion
Subject:
Mental illness--Social aspects
Subject:
Drug addicts--Public opinion
Subject:
Danger perception
Subject:
Mental illness in mass media
Degree:
Doctor of Clinical Psychology
Level:
Doctoral
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online to Loyola Notre Dame Library basic constituency.
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Identifier:
DellaPortaK-11
