The relationship between attitudes towards people with mental illness, empathy and belief in a just world

Jelenčić, Majda. (2013). The relationship between attitudes towards people with mental illness, empathy and belief in a just world. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Arambašić, Lidija].

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether there are any differences in attitudes towards people with mental illness, empathy and belief in a just world depending on gender and field of study of the participants along with the relationship between mentioned variables. On the sample of 269 students measures of attitudes towards people with mental illness, cognitive and emotional empathy as well as general belief in a just world were applied. The results indicated gender differences in empathy with female students scoring significantly higher on the total, cognitive and emotional empathy. Gender differences were not found for either attitudes towards people with mental illness or endorsement of the belief in a just world. Also, there were no differences in measured variables among students in different fields of study. Furthermore, empathy was found to be correlated with attitudes towards people with mental illness and belief in a just world where participants with stronger empathy showed more positive attitudes towards people with mental illness and stronger endorsement of the belief in a just world. The correlation between belief in a just world and attitudes towards people with mental illness was not found.

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