Effects of diagnosis on reactions to patient optimism and depression.

Explored the implicit theories of 145 health professionals regarding disability and rehabilitation as revealed by their ratings of the psychological state, adjustment, likeability, and proposed treatment of depressed and optimistic patients from 4 diagnostic groups. Discriminant analyses showed significant differences between the reactions to optimistic and depressed patients in all diagnostic groups, but these differences were more extensive for less stigmatized conditions (heart attack and rheumatoid arthritis) than for more stigmatized diagnoses (cancer and paraplegia). The implications of the findings for R. A. Scott's (1970) theory of professionals' ideologies and B. Wright's (1983) notion of the social requirements of cheerfulness and mourning in the disabled are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)