Symposium 73 - Perceptions and Beliefs about Mental Health and their Clinical and Public Health Implications

Chair(s)

• ML

  Matthew Lebowitz, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Assistant Professor
  Columbia University
  New York, New York

Discussant(s)

• 

  Dean McKay, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Professor
  Fordham University
  Bronx, New York

Presenter(s)

• AA

  Amitai Abramovitch, Ph.D.

  Associate Professor
  Texas State University
  San Marcos, Texas
• ML

  Matthew Lebowitz, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Assistant Professor
  Columbia University
  New York, New York
• 

  John Pachankis, Ph.D.

  Susan Dwight Bliss Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
  Yale School of Public Health
  New Haven, Connecticut
• 

  Isaac Ahuvia, M.A. (he/him/his)

  PhD Student
  Stony Brook University
  Port Jefferson station, New York

Mental disorders, including addiction and depression, are significant and increasing public health problems that often disproportionately affect minority and youth populations. Beliefs about how the causes and nature of mental health difficulties should be conceptualized can have important implications for wellbeing. For example, research has suggested that diagnostic labels can lead to stigmatizing attitudes, endorsement of certain causal explanations (e.g., genetic and other biomedical attributions) for one’s own symptoms can be linked to prognostic pessimism, and cultural norms can affect whether a particular set of psychological experiences is even conceived of as a disorder. The proposed symposium will present cutting-edge research focused on people’s beliefs about mental health and the downstream implications of these perspectives.

Amitai Abramovitch, Ph.D., will present the results of a study examining differences in self-reported symptomatology and functioning, within a sample of individuals who met criteria for at least one mental disorder, between those who had previously received a formal diagnosis and those who had not. He will discuss the possibility that the labeling process inherent in receiving a diagnosis might itself lead to perceiving oneself as experiencing more significant psychopathology.

Matthew Lebowitz, Ph.D., will present quantitative and qualitative results of a study of individuals with gambling disorder and alcohol use disorder, focused on their beliefs about the role of genetics in addiction. He will discuss the complex relationship of genetic attributions for one’s disorder (e.g., an addiction) to stigma and blame. He will also present qualitative findings regarding participants’ views about the clinical utility of addiction genetics and the possible benefits and pitfalls of uncovering a person’s level of genetic susceptibility to addictive disorders.

John Pachankis, Ph.D., will present quantitative and qualitative findings from a multi-study examination of sexual minority individuals’ beliefs about the causes of a well-documented disparity in which members of the LGBTQ+ community suffer from depression at higher rates than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. He will discuss the ways in which endorsing particular narratives about the reasons that one’s group is disproportionately affected by psychopathology may be associated with perceptions about the severity and permanence of the disparity, as well as the potential clinical, psychological, and public health implications of such views.

Isaac Ahuvia, M.A., will present findings from two studies conducted among U.S. adolescents experiencing elevated depression symptoms, examining their views about what symptoms constitute depression. He will discuss how adolescents’ beliefs compare to the DSM-5 definition of major depression, as well as associations between the expansiveness of their conceptualizations of depression and their beliefs about the disorder’s permanence and treatability.

Dean McKay, Ph.D., a former ABCT president, will serve as discussant, drawing attention to common themes from across the presentations and highlighting the implications of the findings for clinical practice and public health.