Abstract
As psychiatric facilities move toward a community mental health orientation, it appears vital to understand and measure this new ideological perspective. A valid and reliable 38-item Scale has been developed for this purpose. The Community Mental Health Ideology Scale very effectively discriminates between groups known to be highly oriented to this ideology and random samples of mental health professionals. Other evidence of the Scale's construct validity is presented, and certain correlates of community mental health ideology are described. Further data on the validity of the Scale is required, and additional areas for future research are indicated.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Baker, F. An open-systems approach to the study of mental hospitals in transition. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of American Psychological Association, New York, September 2, 1966.
Bellak, L. Community psychiatry and community mental health. New York: Grune and Stratton, 1964.
Bockoven, J. S. The moral mandate of community psychiatry in America.Psychiat. Opinion, 1966,3, 24–39.
Caplan, G., &Caplan, Ruth B. Development of community psychiatry concepts in the United States. In Freedman, A. M., & Kaplan, H. I. (Eds.),Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1966. Pp. 1499–1516.
Gilbert, Doris C., &Levinson, D. J. “Custodialism” and “humanism” in staff ideology. In Greenblatt, M., Levinson, D. J., & Williams, R. H. (Eds.),The patient and the mental hospital. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1957. Pp. 20–36.
Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on Medical Education.The preclinical teaching of psychiatry. Report No. 54. New York: Author, 1962.
Hobbs, N. Mental health's third revolution.Amer. J. Orthopsychiat., 1964,34, 822–833.
Hollingshead, A. B., &Redlich, F. C. Social class and mental illness. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958.
Levinson, D. J. Idea systems in the individual and society. In Zollschan, G. K., & Hirsch, W. (Eds.),Explorations in social change. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964. Pp. 297–318.
Rossi, A. M. Some pre-World War II antecedents of community mental health theory and practice.Ment. Hyg., 1962,46, 78–94.
Schulberg, H. C., &Baker, F. Varied attitudes to community mental health.Arch. Gen. Psychiat. (in press).
Schulberg, H. C.,Caplan, G., &Greenblatt, M. Evaluating the changing mental hospital: a suggested research strategy.Ment. Hyg. (in press)
Sharaf, M., &Levinson, D. J. Patterns of ideology and role differentiation among psychiatric residents. In Greenblatt, M., Levinson, D. J., & Williams, R. H. (Eds.),The patient and the mental hospital. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1957. Pp. 263–285.
Shaw, M. E., &Wright, J. M. Scales for the measurement of attitudes. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
Strauss, A., Schatzman, L., Bucher, R., Ehrlich, D., &Sabshin, H. Psychiatric ideologies and institutions. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964.
Tomkins, S. S. Affect and the psychology of knowledge. In Tomkins, S. S., & Izard, C. E. (Eds.),Affect, cognition, and personality. New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1965. Pp. 72–97.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The study reported in this paper was supported by NIMH Small Grant MH 13318-01 and NIMH Special Grant MH-09214. The authors wish to thank Dr. Kenneth Jones for his statistical consultation and Dr. Gerald Caplan for his encouragement of this work. Printed copies of the CMHI Scale suitable for use in research studies, together with scoring templates, are available from theCommunity Mental Health Journal, 605 W. 115 St., Room 301, New York, N.Y.10025.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baker, F., Schulberg, H.C. The development of a community mental health ideology scale. Community Ment Health J 3, 216–225 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01434874
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01434874