Attitude towards Mental Illness among Students Appeared in the Entrance Examination for Higher Degree in Mental Health

The study was planned to investigate attitude towards mental illness among students seeking admission in various discipline, appeared in entrance examination at Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS) for pursuing their higher degree in Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology and Psychiatric Social Work (PSW). The purpose of the study was to find out the kind of attitude students had towards mental illnesses is prior to their training in the field of mental health and differences in perception among different groups. The sample size was consisted of 180 randomly selected students (20 Psychiatry, 135 Psychology and 25 PSW) who were selected through purposive random sampling technique. A semi-structured socio-demographic data sheet and Attitude Scale for Mental Illness (A modified version of the questionnaire, Opinions about Mental Illness in the Chinese Community (OMICC) (Ng & Chan, 2000) were used to collect the relevant information. Results of the study showed significant group differences in stereotyping, pessimistic prediction and stigmatization domains of the attitude towards mental illness where the attitude of the psychiatry group towards mental illness was better than the other two groups.