Abstract:

The stigma of mental disorders indicates the prejudice or discrimination against patients with mental disorders due to their illness. The stigma of mental disorders not only seriously affects the recovery of patients with mental disorders but also seriously impedes their integration into society and harms their social functioning. Nowadays, due to the large number of people suffering from mental illnesses worldwide, the stigma of patients with mental disorders has led to a wide range of social impacts. Therefore, previous studies have proposed many theories to interpret the generation of the stigma of mental disorders and propose many intervention programs to eliminate the stigma. However, these theories hold the view that the generation of the stigma of mental disorders is mainly due to the lack of public social knowledge about mental disorders, unreasonable attribution, or lower moral level. Moreover, these theories had drastic debates. For example, the effects of these intervention programs based on these theories were not always stable. To reduce such debates, the present study interprets the stigma of mental disorders from the underlying cognitive system of the stigma. To this end, the present study proposes a new theoretical explanation of stigma from the perspective of social categorization and proposes corresponding intervention programs. Specifically, the present study believes that people’s stigma of mental disorders is derived from social classification. People spontaneously categorize patients with mental disorders as out-group members, which results in out-group bias and prevents people from maintaining objective and rational perceptions of patients with mental disorders, and eventually generates stigma. Based on the innovational theories above, the present study also extends the theoretical perspective of continuum beliefs and proposes an innovational stigma intervention system.

The continuum beliefs intervention is a potential intervention method to eliminate the stigma of mental disorders, which has been tested widely. The continuum beliefs intervention attempts to blur the boundaries between people and patients with mental disorders. This approach intends to affect the instinct categorization processing of human beings to minimize stigma. The continuum beliefs intervention holds that there is no absolute difference between typical people and patients with mental disorders, which suggests that they are similar and cannot be separated. Therefore, continuum beliefs intervention focuses on the core mechanism of the stigma of mental disorders, i.e., social categorization. This approach helps people believe patients with mental disorders are similar to themselves, which will significantly reduce the stigma of mental disorders.

The present study further extended the continuum beliefs intervention by proposing a social classification-based continuum beliefs intervention program, which highlights the role of social classification in the continuum beliefs intervention program. Furthermore, the present study constructs a social classification-based continuum beliefs intervention model. The social classification-based continuum beliefs intervention model holds that: (1) the intervention aim is reducing incorrect social categorization; (2) the contents of the intervention are used to eradicate incorrect social classification; (3) the one’s level of incorrect social categorization can be used as the indicator to measure the intervention effect. In addition, the effect of the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention depends on three factors: perceived threats, disease attribution, and personal traits. The present paper also interpreted how these factors improve or decrease the intervention effects of the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention. Furthermore, the present paper also interpreted how the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention changed social categorization and then influenced the generation of the stigma of mental disorders. Future studies should examine the theoretical model of the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention in cross-cultural situations. Meanwhile, future studies may develop online continuum beliefs intervention methods to extend the application of the continuum beliefs intervention. Furthermore, future studies may also develop individualized continuum beliefs intervention programs to improve the intervention effect.

Key words: mental disorders, stigma, continuum beliefs, social classification