Lilach Raviv-Turjeman (Sup.Prof.Perla Werner),
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Background
Lilach Raviv-Turjeman is a lecturer in psychology and academic literacy at various colleges in Northern Israel, the Ministry of Economics and Ministry of Education. In addition, she mentors teacher training students in psychology and develops teaching methods for lecturers. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and teacher certification from Bar-Ilan University and a Masters in Education - Psychological Aspects of Education - from the University of Haifa. She was awarded a distinction for her thesis on the subject, "Using facet theory to promote scientific thinking" in the field of cognitive psychology. She is currently studying for her PhD degree in the Department of Community Mental Health at the University of Haifa.
Current Research
Her current research is "Public stigma towards persons with Alzheimer's disease: is there a difference between the expression of explicit and implicit attitudes and between the stigma towards older and younger people with AD?"
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is known as the most common form of dementia in the world. The issue of stigma has often been studied with regard to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression and others, but surprisingly AD has only recently been studied, based only on explicit attitudes.
Lately researchers into the issue of stigma, particularly with regard to mental illness, have recommended studying implicit, alongside explicit, attitudes in order to provide important information about stigmatic behavior and enable more accurate predictions about this sensitive subject.
Studying implicit, in conjunction with explicit, attitudes towards AD is especially important in light of the fact that despite the fact that from an anecdotal point of view, it is claimed that powerful stigmas exist towards people with AD, the few empirical studies that have been published on this subject found that, based on explicit attitudes, the level of stigma towards these people is surprisingly moderate. It is possible that this finding derives from methodological problems associated with evaluating explicit attitudes, such as social desirability. Therefore, in this research, differences between explicit and implicit attitudes of the wider public towards people with AD were examined.
Examining implicit attitudes in this research was carried out using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computerized test designed to measure the strength of association between concepts and associations.
Another perspective that has yet to be referred to in the growing literature regarding stigma and AD, is the public's stigma towards young sufferers. From a literature review, it appears that to date, no research has examined stigma towards young adults with AD, despite up to date testimony indicating that among younger people (aged 30-50), the illness is more advanced, even in the early stages, something that could increase discrimination against them. Therefore, this research examines the differences between the public's sigma towards young people with AD and older people with AD.
This research is likely to contribute to an understanding of components and factors that need to be changed or strengthened in order to eradicate the stigma associated with AD, both toward younger and older sufferers. Understanding and examining the magnitude of stigma will enable design and construction of activities that will lead to a reduction of stigmatic thoughts and emotions that result in stigmatic behaviors and may even enable creating activities that will lead to norms that reduce stigmatic behavior.
Research Interests
- Stigma, Alzheimer's Disease, Implicit attitudes, IAT test, Attribution Theory, Ageism, Facet Theory, Cognitive psychology.