WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Some research suggests that holding a free will perspective may offer mental health and physical health benefits. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This study is the first to examine links between free will perceptions and psychiatric symptoms in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Study results suggest that helping people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia to recognize situations where they do have some freedom of choice over their actions and emotional reactions (free will) may assist them in improving their experiences and better managing their symptoms.
Introduction Some research indicates that having a strong sense that one possesses free will may be associated with better psychological and physical health. This study is the first to examine the relationship between free will perceptions and psychiatric symptoms in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Method Thirty-two participants were interviewed using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale to assess symptom severity and the Free Will Subscale of the Free Will and Determinism Scale to assess free will perceptions. Results As hypothesized, a negative association was found between free will perceptions and total symptom severity, though it appears that this was mainly accounted for by positive symptoms. A content analysis was also conducted to qualitatively examine how patients conceptualize the construct of free will and its role in coping with their own mental illness. Discussion Study results suggest that holding a free will perspective may mitigate psychiatric symptoms in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Thus, psychiatric nurses and other mental health clinicians may improve current treatments for schizophrenia by helping patients recognize situations where they do have some freedom of choice over their actions and emotional reactions (free will) to stressful life events.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 March 2019.
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#21,628,726
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Outputs from Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing
#1,013
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#189,262
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Outputs of similar age from Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing
#8
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Altmetric has tracked 34,360,889 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 36th percentile – i.e., 36% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,536 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.2. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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