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Adolescences Attitudes Towards Mental Illness

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Running Head: ADOLESCENCES ATTITUDES TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS
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Adolescences Attitudes Towards Mental Illness Kellie Walker Student Number- 11546766 Charles Sturt University

Subject: PSY102 Subject coordinator: Rabul Islam Assignment No: 2 Due Date: 15.09.2014
Word Count: 2,086!

ADOLESCENCES ATTITUDES TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS Abstract

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There is a large amount of research evidence which suggests that social acceptance is associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and a greater willingness to seek mental health support. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the extent to which a group of adolescents perceived mental illness as being caused by physical and psychosocial causes and their degree of social acceptance. The participants involved in this study were eight boys and eight girls with a mean age of 14.06 (SD=0.92), who were randomly selected from select high schools in NSW. Participants were presented with a vignette and asked to indicate their level of agreeance with a number of closed ended questions. The results of this study found that adolescents showed less social acceptance of behaviour that was perceived to be related to mental illness. Furthermore, the more mental illness was perceived the greater chance it was attributed to a belief in psychosocial causes.
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ADOLESCENCES ATTITUDES TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS Adolescences Attitudes Towards Mental Illness

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Abnormal behaviour has been attributed to psychosocial and physical causes throughout history, sometimes as separate entities, although in more recent times it has been considered a combination of biological, psychological, and social aetiology, such as in the Biopsychosocial model of health (Burton, Westen & Kowalski, 2012). The way people perceive abnormal behaviour affects their

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