the assessment of psychiatric attitudes has been inconsistent over the years despite considerable evidence of the important role which they play in the efficacy of intervention with psychiatric illness. the development of an assessment tool which was both modern in theory and terminology was undertaken with the focus being on item construction and reliability. three theoretical dimensions (restrictive control; protective benevolence; humanistic) were consistently identified within the research literature, and items were written for these dimensions concerning five content areas (hospitals, treatment, professional staff, patients and illness). the final vetted battery was administered to 210 individuals, with factor analyses and reliability statistics calculated. after careful consideration of the limits of the present study, forty items were tentatively forwarded for further investigation in the development of a psychiatric attitudes assessment device.