IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v54y2008i2p164-179.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beliefs About Schizophrenia and Its Treatment in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Viren Swami

    (Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London, UK, virenswami@hotmail.com)

  • Adrian Furnham

    (Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK)

  • Kumaraswami Kannan

    (Hospital Mesra Bukit Padang, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia)

  • Dhachayani Sinniah

    (Jabatan Psikiatri, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Abstract

Background: Lay beliefs about schizophrenia have been extensively studied in cross-cultural settings, but research on ethnic differences are currently lacking. Aims: This study examined beliefs about the manifestations, causes and cures of schizophrenia in a multi-ethnic sample from Malaysia. Methods: In this study, 561 Malay, Chinese and Kadazan-Dusun participants rated 72 statements about schizophrenia on a 7-point scale. Results: Results showed that Malaysians tended to favour social-environmental explanations for schizophrenia. There were also ethnic and sex differences in these results. Specifically, Malay participants more strongly agreed that schizophrenia has a social cause, that treatment should affect changes at a societal level, that schizophrenic behaviour is sinful and that mental hospitals do not provide effective treatments. Conclusions : Lay beliefs about schizophrenia may serve different functions for different ethno-cultural groups, which have an influence on help-seeking behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Viren Swami & Adrian Furnham & Kumaraswami Kannan & Dhachayani Sinniah, 2008. "Beliefs About Schizophrenia and Its Treatment in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(2), pages 164-179, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:164-179
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764007084665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764007084665
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764007084665?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Furnham & R. Malik, 1994. "Cross-Cultural Beliefs About "Depression"," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 40(2), pages 106-123, June.
    2. Adrian Furnham & Joanna Rees, 1988. "Lay Theories of Schizophrenia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 34(3), pages 212-220, September.
    3. Link, B.G. & Phelan, J.C. & Bresnahan, M. & Stueve, A. & Pescosolido, B.A., 1999. "Public conceptions of mental illness: Labels, causes, dangerousness, and social distance," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(9), pages 1328-1333.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Viren Swami & Phik-Wern Loo & Adrian Furnham, 2010. "Public Knowledge and Beliefs About Depression Among Urban and Rural Malays in Malaysia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(5), pages 480-496, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adrian Furnham & Anuli Igboaka, 2007. "Young People's Recognition and Understanding of Schizophrenia: a Cross-Cultural Study of Young People From Britain and Nigeria," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 53(5), pages 430-446, September.
    2. Adrian Furnham & Elizabeth Anthony, 2010. "Lay Theories of Bipolar Disorder: the Causes, Manifestations and Cures for Perceived Bipolar Disorder," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(3), pages 255-269, May.
    3. Saheed Wahass & Gerry Kent, 1997. "A Comparison of Public Attitudes in Britain and Saudi Arabia Towards Auditory Hallucinations," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 43(3), pages 175-183, September.
    4. Adrian Furnham & William Ritchie & Alixe Lay, 2016. "Beliefs about the causes and cures of depression," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 62(5), pages 415-424, August.
    5. Omar Hegazi & Samer Alalalmeh & Ahmad Alfaresi & Soheil Dashtinezhad & Ahmed Bahada & Moyad Shahwan & Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun & Tesleem K. Babalola & Haya Yasin, 2022. "Development, Validation, and Utilization of a Social Media Use and Mental Health Questionnaire among Middle Eastern and Western Adults: A Pilot Study from the UAE," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Wright, Annemarie & Jorm, Anthony F. & Mackinnon, Andrew J., 2011. "Labeling of mental disorders and stigma in young people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(4), pages 498-506, August.
    7. Kathy Knox & Jasmina Fejzic & Amary Mey & Jane L Fowler & Fiona Kelly & Denise McConnell & Laetitia Hattingh & Amanda J Wheeler, 2014. "Mental health consumer and caregiver perceptions of stigma in Australian community pharmacies," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(6), pages 533-543, September.
    8. Ben Butlin & Keith Laws & Rebecca Read & Matthew D Broome & Shivani Sharma, 2019. "Concepts of mental disorders in the United Kingdom: Similarities and differences between the lay public and psychiatrists," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(6), pages 507-514, September.
    9. Yang, Lawrence H. & Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie & Kotabe, Hiroki & Link, Bruce G. & Saw, Anne & Wong, Gloria & Phelan, Jo C., 2013. "Culture, threat, and mental illness stigma: Identifying culture-specific threat among Chinese-American groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 56-67.
    10. Ahmed El Missiry & Marwa Abd El Meguid & Ahmed Abourayah & Marwa El Missiry & Mohamed Hossam & Hussien Elkholy & Afaf H Khalil, 2019. "Rates and profile of victimization in a sample of Egyptian patients with major mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(3), pages 183-193, May.
    11. Carpiano, Richard M. & Fitz, Nicholas S., 2017. "Public attitudes toward child undervaccination: A randomized experiment on evaluations, stigmatizing orientations, and support for policies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 127-136.
    12. Dobransky, Kerry, 2009. "The good, the bad, and the severely mentally ill: Official and informal labels as organizational resources in community mental health services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 722-728, September.
    13. Rena Jobanputra & Adrian F. Furnham, 2005. "British Gujarati Indian Immigrants' and British Caucasians' Beliefs about Health and Illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 51(4), pages 350-364, December.
    14. Pinto-Foltz, Melissa D. & Logsdon, M. Cynthia & Myers, John A., 2011. "Feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of a knowledge-contact program to reduce mental illness stigma and improve mental health literacy in adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(12), pages 2011-2019, June.
    15. Karine S Nersessova & Tomas Jurcik & Timothy L Hulsey, 2019. "Differences in beliefs and attitudes toward Depression and Schizophrenia in Russia and the United States," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(5), pages 388-398, August.
    16. Adrian Furnham & Masako Murao, 2000. "A Cross-Cultural Comparison of British and Japanese Lay Theories of Schizophrenia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 46(1), pages 4-20, March.
    17. Johan M. Berlin & Eric D. Carlström, 2015. "Cultural camouflage—a critical study of how artefacts are camouflaged and mental health policy subverted," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 111-126, April.
    18. Krishnakshi Dutt & Martin Webber, 2010. "Access to Social Capital and Social Support Among South East Asian Women With Severe Mental Health Problems: a Cross-Sectional Survey," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(6), pages 593-605, November.
    19. Joseph S DeLuca & John Vaccaro & Jenna Seda & Philip T Yanos, 2018. "Political attitudes as predictors of the multiple dimensions of mental health stigma," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(5), pages 459-469, August.
    20. Yasuyuki Okumura & Shinji Sakamoto, 2012. "Depression treatment preferences among Japanese undergraduates: Using conjoint analysis," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(2), pages 195-203, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:164-179. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.