Authoritarian and socially restrictive attitudes toward mental patients in mental health volunteers and nonvolunteers.

31 French-Canadian mental health volunteers and 43 nonvolunteers participated in a study of the relationship between Authoritarian and Socially Restrictive attitudes toward mental patients and the variables of volunteer status, age, sex, education, having a mentally ill family member, Locus of Control, Extraversion, Psychoticism, Neuroticism, and Social Desirability. Bivariate and partial (Social Desirability effects removed) correlations suggested that scores on Authoritarian and Socially Restrictive attitudes are higher among older, less educated, less extraverted men and women who are not volunteers. Although volunteers compared to nonvolunteers had lower scores on Authoritarian and Socially Restrictive attitudes, they did not differ in terms of age, having a mentally ill family member or scores on Locus of Control, Extraversion, Psychoticism, Neuroticism, and Social Desirability; however, volunteers were better educated.