Dietrich Sandra, Matschinger Herbert, Angermeyer Matthias C
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Germany.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2006 Mar;52(2):166-74. doi: 10.1177/0020764006061246.
Several studies have found an inverse relationship between people's readiness to endorse biogenetic causal explanations of mental disorder and their desire for social distance from people with mental disorders. The aim of this study is to examine why this may be the case.
In the spring of 2001, a population survey was carried out among German citizens aged 18 years and older, living in private households. A total of 5025 interviews were conducted, reflecting a response rate of 65.1%. At the beginning of the personal, fully structured interview, respondents were presented with a vignette containing a diagnostically unlabelled psychiatric case history, either depicting a case of schizophrenia or major depressive disorder. Using five-point Likert scales, causal attributions as well as perceived dangerousness, fear and the desire for social distance were assessed.
The more respondents endorse a brain disease as a cause, the more dangerous they believe the person with schizophrenia or major depression to be. Respondents who perceive the individual in the vignette as being dangerous express a higher degree of fear and a greater preference for social distance from these individuals. As compared with brain disease, the relationships between heredity and perceived dangerousness are less pronounced for both disorders.
Our analysis showed that endorsing biogenetic explanations decreases the likelihood of social acceptance of people with schizophrenia and major depression. Rejecting behavioural responses in the form of social distance desired from people with schizophrenia and major depression result from cognitive emotional processes in which biogenetic causal attributions are linked to lack of self-control, unpredictability and dangerousness, which, in turn, are associated with fear of these people.
多项研究发现，人们对精神障碍的生物遗传因果解释的认同程度与他们对精神障碍患者的社交距离渴望之间存在负相关关系。本研究旨在探究为何会出现这种情况。
2001年春季，对居住在私人家庭中的18岁及以上德国公民进行了一项人口调查。共进行了5025次访谈，回应率为65.1%。在个人的、完全结构化的访谈开始时，向受访者展示了一个包含未明确诊断的精神病史的小插曲，描述的要么是精神分裂症病例，要么是重度抑郁症病例。使用五点李克特量表评估因果归因以及感知到的危险性、恐惧和社交距离渴望。
受访者越认同脑部疾病是病因，他们就越认为精神分裂症或重度抑郁症患者具有危险性。将小插曲中的个体视为危险的受访者表现出更高程度的恐惧，并且更倾向于与这些个体保持社交距离。与脑部疾病相比，遗传因素与两种疾病的感知危险性之间的关系不那么明显。
我们的分析表明，认同生物遗传解释会降低精神分裂症和重度抑郁症患者被社会接受的可能性。拒绝与精神分裂症和重度抑郁症患者保持社交距离这种行为反应，源于认知情感过程，在这个过程中，生物遗传因果归因与缺乏自我控制、不可预测性和危险性相关联，而这些又与对这些人的恐惧有关。
