Teaching of Psychology, Ahead of Print.
BackgroundPsychology coursework may include opportunities to reduce mental illness stigma attitudes among college students. However, some strategies are known to backfire, and little is known about how these attitudes evolve during psychology coursework.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to examine whether psychology students’ mental illness stigma attitudes change over the course of a semester.MethodThis research examined changes in mental illness stigma across four undergraduate psychology courses: Introductory Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Basic Helping Skills, and Internship. Students (N = 400) completed two mental illness stigma measures at the beginning and end of the semester.ResultsRegardless of course, students showed slightly decreased anxiety-related stigma regarding individuals with mental illness and lower social distancing attitudes toward individuals with schizophrenia, as well as increased perceptions of the treatability of mental illness, over the course of the semester.ConclusionThe findings suggest limited stigma reduction through the psychology curriculum.Teaching ImplicationsGreater emphasis on systematic efforts for stigma reduction across the psychology curriculum is warranted and instructors may want to consider developing gender-related stigma reduction methods.