Effects of therapist behavior on people's mental illness judgments.

Asked 308 undergraduates to function in a judgmental activity assumed to correspond to the diagnostic activity of categorizing a target person as "mentally ill." Methodology and data collection were designed to elaborate the position that diagnosticians make attributions and impose already formed constructions when they engage in the social judgment situation that is assumed to be an objective categorizing endeavor. The behaviors of the target person, which are generally regarded as syndrome-identifying symptoms, were held constant, whereas the behavior of the interviewer varied in terms of his demonstrated "interest" in the target person's narration. Analysis of scores taken from semantic differential scales and a behavioral postdiction test show that Ss regarded the target person as more negative and more "maladjusted" when the interviewer enacted expected appropriate professional interest. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)