Psychology Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Journal
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement
Volume
47
Issue
4
First Page
313
Last Page
320
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039611
Abstract
Public stigma discourages people with depression from seeking help. Attribution theory predicts that psychological causal explanations for depression increase public stigma by emphasising personal responsibility for the condition. Schema theory may, however, present a less stigmatizing psychological etiology by emphasising childhood experiences. Undergraduate participants (N = 276) were randomly presented with vignettes positing biomedical, contextual, cognitive distortion, or cognitive schema explanations for depression. Contextual, cognitive distortion, and cognitive schema explanations for depression were associated with less public stigma relative to the control condition. Future antistigma programs may incorporate cognitive and contextual models of depression to reduce public stigma.
Notes
© American Psychological Association, 2015-10-01. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039611