Exploring the Role of Diagnosis in the Modified Labeling Theory of Mental Illness

According to the modified labeling theory of mental illness, when an individual is diagnosed with a mental illness, cultural ideas associated with the mentally ill become personally relevant and foster negative self-feelings. We explore the way that psychiatric diagnosis shapes this process. Specifically, we examine if and how psychiatric patients' diagnostic category (adjustment, affective, or schizophrenic) moderates the relationship between stigma sentiments and the meanings associated with self-identities (“myself as I really am”) and reflected appraisals (“myself as others see me”). Stigma sentiments are the evaluation, potency, and activity associated with the cultural category “a mentally ill person.” We find that diagnosis moderates several of these relationships and that the results among patients with an affective diagnosis best match the stigma sentiment hypotheses derived from the modified labeling theory. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the stigma sentiment hypotheses. We also highlight several avenues for future research.