Changing attitudes about schizophrenia

Research on the effectiveness of short-term education programs in changing societal attitudes about mental illness has been mixed. Education efforts s eem to be mediated by characteristics of the program participants, This stu dy determines whether the effects of a specially prepared, semester-long co urse on severe mental illness are mediated by pre-education knowledge about and contact with severe mental illness, Eighty-three participants who were enrolled in either a course on severe mental illness or general psychology completed the Opinions about Mental Illness Questionnaire before beginning the course and at completion. Research participants also completed a pre- and posttest of knowledge about mental illness and a pretest on their conta ct with people who have severe mental illness, The education program had po sitive effects on some attitudes about mental illness. Interestingly, the e ffects of education group interacted with pre-education knowledge and conta ct and varied depending on attitude. Participants with more pre-education k nowledge and contact were less likely to endorse benevolence attitudes afte r completing the education program. Participants with more intimate contact showed less improvement in attitudes about social restrictiveness. Implica tions of these augmentation and ceiling effects are discussed.