The literature on the public image of psychology has indicated that the public generally has positive perceptions of psychologists yet continues to hold some specific negative attitudes toward psychologists. In addition, the research regarding knowledge about psychologists and the relationships between attitudes toward psychologists and other factors has remained unclear. Limitations in the literature have included the lack of information regarding the public image of psychologists among racial/ethnic minority groups, lack of common measurement of attitudes toward psychologists, and confusion between knowledge about psychologists versus attitudes toward psychologists.
Based on these findings, a measure of attitudes toward psychologists, the Attitudes Toward Psychologists Inventory (ATPI), was constructed in the current study using a sample of 416 university students. Factor analysis suggested that the ATPI has a single factor structure of positive versus negative attitudes toward psychologists, accounting for 36% of the total variance. Reliability analyses suggested the 26-item ATPI had both high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The ATPI was highly correlated with other measures of attitudes toward psychologists and not highly correlated with socioeconomic status or social desirability, suggesting both convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, attitudes toward psychologists as measured by the ATPI were positively related to knowledge about psychologists and contact with psychologists, and negatively related to fear of psychotherapy and a negative network orientation, suggesting construct validity. Gender and racial/ethnic group comparisons suggested that European American college students held more positive attitudes toward psychologists than African American and Asian American college students. In particular, European American women held more positive attitudes toward psychologists than any other racial/ethnic group-gender combination. The results suggested that college students in the present study held a slightly positive attitude toward psychologists overall, while knowledge about psychologists was only fair, with particular deficits in knowledge regarding training, ethical codes, and roles of psychologists. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.