Schizophrenia and Attractiveness

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Schizophrenia and Attractiveness

• Dawnielle Avarell
• Chris Ouellette
• Fort Lewis College

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Background

• Stereotypes of Attractiveness
• Public Perceptions of Mental Illness
• Gender differences in views of Mental Illness
• Views on Schizophrenia
• Professional
• Public

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Stereotypes

• Grant, Button, Hannah Ross (2002)
• Attractive stereotypes

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Public Perception

• Rooney (2000)
• Hearing Other Voices
• Link Phelan (1999)
• Public Conceptions of Mental Illness

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Gender Differences

• Ng Chan (2000)
• Six Factors
• Benevolence, Separatism, Stereotyping,
  Restrictiveness, Pessimistic Prediction, and
  Stigmatation

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Views on Schizophrenia

• Professional
• Caldwell Jorm (2000)
• Public
• Schulze, Richter-Werling, Matschinger
  Angermeyer (2003)

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Research Question

• Will attractiveness and the knowledge of
  schizophrenia affect peoples views on the
  characteristics of target male subjects?

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Variables

• Independent
• Schizophrenia
• Attractiveness

• Dependent
• Friendliness
• Aggressiveness
• Loneliness
• Dangerousness
• Attractiveness
• Caring
• Depression

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Procedure

• A convenient sample of 76 undergraduate Fort
  Lewis students, were asked to volunteer to
  participate in our survey.
• 30 were presented via PowerPoint in a classroom,
  46 were presented with color photos and asked to
  do the survey.

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Subjects
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Photos
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Survey

• Please take a few moments to examine the
  projected picture his name is Jeff. Jeff is 23
  years old. He is a junior at a near by college
  majoring in Business. He enjoys school and has a
  B average. Jeff is working at the front desk
  in the local Recreational Center. He enjoys his
  job and the people that he works with. He likes
  to mountain bike and rock climb with his two
  roommates. They all live in a nice apartment
  close to Jeffs work and school. Jeff has
  schizophrenia and regularly takes medication for
  the disease.

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Results for Males
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Results for Females
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Attractiveness

• There was a significant main effect between
  attractiveness of the photo and attractiveness
  ratings, F (1, 76) 18.15, p .0005
• There was a significant interaction between
  subject gender and schizophrenia on ratings of
  attractiveness, F (1, 76) 5.55, p .021
• There was a significant interaction between
  subject gender, attractiveness and ratings of
  attractiveness, F (1, 76) 8.45, p .003

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Attractiveness
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Aggressiveness

• There was a significant main effect between
  attractiveness and aggressiveness, F(1, 76)
  18.21, p .0005
• There was a marginally significant interaction
  between subject gender, schizophrenia information
  and attractiveness on ratings of aggressiveness,
  F (1, 76) 2.987, p .088

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Aggressiveness
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Dangerousness

• There was a significant interaction between
  subject gender, schizophrenia information and
  attractiveness on ratings of dangerousness, F (1,
  76) 6.43, p .014.

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Dangerousness
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Loneliness

• There was a marginally significant main effect of
  attractiveness on rating of loneliness, F (1, 76)
  3.91, p .052
• There was a marginally significant interaction
  between subject gender, schizophrenia information
  and attractiveness on ratings of loneliness, F
  (1, 76) 3.26, p .075

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Loneliness
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Further Research

• Larger samples
• Male and Female photos
• Explore different disorders

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Thank You!

• Any Questions?