Internal Motivation to Respond without Prejudice as a Mediator of Gender-Attitudes toward Mental Illness

This study examined the mediating role of motivation to respond without prejudice on gender differences in attitudes toward mental illness. Three hundred and seventy university students participated in the study. A revised version of the Motivation to Respond without Prejudice scale (Plant & Devine, 1998) was used to measure motivation, and the Opinions about Mental Illness scale (Cohen & Struening, 1962) was used to measure attitudes toward mental illness. Hierarchical regression analyses were utilized to analyze data. Findings showed that (a) gender alone predicted attitudes toward people with mental illness as females had more favorable attitudes toward people with mental illness than did males, (b) females had higher levels of internal motivation to respond without prejudice than did males, and (c) gender difference in internal motivation to respond partially mediated the relationship between gender and attitudes toward mental illness.