Self and stigma Flashcards
What is stigma?
In Ancient Greece, stigma was a branding, tattoo or type of marking to indicate they were devalued and should be stigmatised.
It is when people are devalued due to them having or believed to have a particular feature or trait
What are the stigma classifications?
- Tribal stigmas (e.g. ethnic groups)
- Abomination of the body (e.g. illness or physical deformity) - links in with evolutionary psychology and infectious diseases
- Blemishes of individual character (e.g. weakness of will, criminal traits)
Remember TAB:
T-ribal
A-bomination of the body
B-lemishes of character
What are the dimensions of stigma?
Concealability (how visible)
> if readily visible, every interaction could be coloured by your stigma
Controllability (how easily you can control the stigma and how responsible you are for it)
> This can shape congnitive, behavioural, and emotional reactions to the member
What are the 3 functions of stigma?
- It increases self-esteem; we denigrade others to feel better about our own group
- It justifies the system
- It increases our chances of survival due to evolutionary psychology
REMEMBER (SSS)
S-elf esteem
S-ystem justification
S-urvival
What are the processes of stigmatisation?
a
What is stereotype threat?
a
Who developed the stigma classifications?
Goffman (1963)
Remember:
> Goffman sounds like Gough Whitlam who was prime minister 10 years after this. He was stigmatised for his progressive movements
> Also, Goffman includes GOffMAN which is what the Stig off Top Gear is always doing
What is the role of stereotypes and social context regarding stigma?
> After stigmatisation, ‘marks’ become associated with negative evaluations and stereotypes, which are then consensually shared
Negative evaluations and stereotypes then become a basis for exclusion
> As the society determines who is and who isn’t stigmatised, there is a variability across time and culture
Can you be stigmatised due to inherited individual characteristics?
No. You have to be part of a group to be stigmatised
What is not explained by the self-esteem and Social Identity function of stigma?
It doesn’t explain why certain group are stigmatised and not just any group
How?
It just states that we stigmatise groups below us to feel better about our group and maintain a positive social identity
What is not explained by the System Justification function of stigma?
It doesn’t explain why some groups are stigmatised in almost every culture
How?
> We are motivated to justify existing social, economic and political systems
> It makes us believe that society is just and right
> Therefore those at the bottom deserve to be there
> What if stigmatised but not at the bottom of the social structure e.g. Jews
What is not explained by the Evolutionary Psychology Approach function of stigma?
It explains commonalities across cultures, but not differences
How?
Common:
> It is adaptive to stigmatise those who hinder our survival
> There are universal characteristics associated with this stigmatisation (e.g. blemishes of character (Goffman, 1963) and carriers of parasitic infection.
> These universal characteristics are common
