| Abstract: | Administered Cohen and Struening's Opinions About Mental Illness scale to a total of 1,212 college students, physicians, nurses and police in Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, and West Germany. Although there were differences among occupational groups, the differences among countries were much more substantial. Results suggest that (a) attitudes toward mental illness are part of a person's general orientation to social issues, rather than a narrow function of his concept of mental illness; and (b) in a community climate characterized by an authoritarian social-political structure, authoritarian and socially restrictive attitudes toward the mentally ill can be expected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
