Implicit Theories of Personality and Mental Health Beliefs

Objective: Implicit theories of personality are a class of beliefs about the fixedness or malleability of human personality traits (Chiu, Hong, & Dweck, 1997). This study examined how Americans' endorsement of an implicit theory of personality influenced their beliefs about mental illness and mental health treatment preferences. Method : One hundred and twenty (120) American residents completed an online survey in which they completed a measure of their implicit theory of personality, read a vignette about a neutral target stimulus evidencing symptoms of mental illness, then completed measures of stigmatization of mental illness, causal beliefs about mental illness, mental health treatment preferences, prognosis beliefs about mental illness, and genetic determinism beliefs about mental illness. Results: Eighty-nine (89%) of participants could be categorized as either endorsing an entity or incremental theory of personality. Participants who endorsed an entity theory of personality were less optimistic about the prognosis of the target stimulus' mental illness and were more likely to endorse the belief that the target stimulus' mental illness was caused by heredity. Conclusions: Americans have fundamental beliefs regarding the fixedness or malleability of personality and can be relatively easily categorized as falling into one of two "camps" regarding these beliefs. Implicit theories of personality influence beliefs about mental illness and mental health treatment in that the degree to which a person believes personality is fixed appears to carry over to the extent to which they believe mental illness is fixed. Implications for clinical work and psychoeducation about mental illness and mental health treatment are discussed.