Adapting to the stigmatizing label of mental illness: Foregone but not forgotten.

In a study with 30 female undergraduates that was ostensibly about memory ability, a condition was created experimentally in which half of the Ss believed that they were participating in the study with mental patients and half believed they were participating with physical injury patients. Behavioral measures of each S were made, and Ss provided self-reports of their perceptions of the other people who were in the study. Results indicate that the label of mental illness was stigmatizing even in the absence of bizarre behaviors. Although Ss interacted with the mental patients normally when in the adaptively unimportant waiting room situation, Ss scored higher on the adaptively significant memory test when participating in the study with "mental patients." Implications for stigma theory, social adaptation, and community placement programs are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)