University of Toronto

Insight, internalized stigma and post-diagnosis identities in schizophrenia (2008-2009)

Principal Investigator: Charmaine Williams, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Funded by: SSHRC Standard Research Grant


This project will investigate how people form identities in relation to their diagnosis of schizophrenia. The conventional understanding in psychiatry has been the people either have "insight" and understand they are ill and need treatment, or they don't have insight because they are too ill or too emotionally fragile to accept the diagnosis. I propose that developing a post-diagnosis identity is based on social as well as psychological factors, particularly, how people are affected by stigma in the social environment and the options that they have for being part of an accepting social community. I will test this hypothesis by having diagnosed individuals complete relevant measures that will allow me to empirically identify various subtypes of post-diagnosis identity that are influenced by these social elements.