A new study found that psychiatric conditions are most likely perceived as 'innate and immutable.' People's view on a certain psychiatric case is biased to a certain factor that is seemingly better for the majority's judgment than the other.
The research shows that most people who are aware and have witnessed a mental illness often deduct that the disorder is unchangeable, especially when diagnosed with a neuroimaging approach rather than behavioral tests.
Psychiatric Disorders vs. Stigma
Northeastern University psychologist, lead author of the study, and author of the book "The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature,' Iris Berent said that the research on essentialist biases over the psychiatric conditions are derived from the larger findings she revealed in her book.
Berent's printed work contains the taboos about how people reason over their human nature. The expert found that a large population is indeed biased on how they recognize themselves.
Mental disorders are surrounded by a lot of questions, even at an age where both psychological studies and neurosciences are developing at a much faster rate than before.
Berent explained that the research was meant to highlight these conundrums we are exposed to. The study shows that people tend to cling to stigma instead of considering psychiatric disorders as treatable diseases like cancer and COVID-19.
The studies on the brain and its correlation with psychiatric disorders are already established in the 21st century. However, Brent said that people falsely believe that a diagnosis is inborn and fixed.
The expert told in a PsyPost report that when people are presented with a disorder evident on a brain scan, they respond with a negative state of mind.
Psychiatric Disorders Are Not Inborn nor Fixed
Brent and her colleagues have experimented to specify the correlation between people's innate and immutability-driven discernments towards the diagnosis approach over a psychiatric condition.
The examination was possible with the help of 80 participants, who were tasked to read a simple and understandable diagnosis from a psychiatric disorder. The diagnosis handed out to the subjects are results of a brain scan or behavioral test. After the diagnosis was presented to the participants, they were asked about the disorder and the patient.
The study shows that the participants tend to assume the diagnosis actively running in the patient's families when the information states that the results were from a brain test. Their response is opposed when the case is diagnosed via a behavioral test, even though the mental disorders presented in both situations were actually the same.
In addition, the participants consider that disorders found through brain tests will manifest much longer. They were also hesitant to the idea of being exposed or living close with an individual whose diagnosis was provided via brain test.
Brent said in the study that people should be careful about their insights regarding the correlation of psychiatric disorders and the brain. The presumption is based on a simple misunderstanding when in reality, the psychiatric disorder that was identified in the brain does not really tell how severe the case is, nor were they born with the condition.
The study was published in the journal Cognitive Science, titled "Essentialist Biases Toward Psychiatric Disorders: Brain Disorders Are Presumed Innate."
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