Promoting positive behaviours towards people with mental illness: Using implementation intentions to overcome avoidance responses rooted in implicit associations

Abstract

This thesis looks at ways of overcoming the deleterious effect that societal stigma has on people with mental illness.

Section 1. A literature review looks at theoretical models of mental illness stigma and the mechanisms by which societal stigma becomes personally relevant to people with mental illnesses, resulting in self-stigma. The extant literature on interventions aimed at ameliorating the negative effects of self-stigma is systematically reviewed and discussed with reference to theoretical models of mental illness stigma and its effects. Implications for future development of self-stigma interventions and their evaluation are discussed.

Section 2. An empirical report looks at a novel anti-stigma approach which attempts to address one of the main stigma cues perceived and internalised by those with mental illness; rejection. The link between implicit attitudes about mental illness and physical proximity to an anticipated target with schizophrenia is investigated in a female, undergraduate sample. The effect of forming an “if-then” plan called an implementation intention on participants’ ability to overcome automatic avoidance motivations was tested objectively by measuring seating distance. By acting at the level of discrimination rather than the level of attitudes traditionally targeted by anti-stigma campaigns, this approach reduced seating distance and succeeded in disconnecting automatic social behaviours from negative implicit and explicit attitudes towards people with mental illness.