Stigma Management

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Stigma Management

• Goffman (1968) suggested that there are two
  different types of deviant groups.
• The Discreditable These are individuals or
  groups whos deviant status is concealable. Most
  discreditables try to pass or avoid being
  identified.
• The Discredited These are individuals or groups
  who have revealed their deviance or cannot hide
  their deviance.
• In both cases, the deviant individual must manage
  there deviance according to their type.

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Deviance Disavowal

• Goffman primarily viewed stigma as an acceptance
  of the identity given to them by society. The
  potential to be discredited causes them to react
  to the stigma by attempting to manage it.
• The act of trying to pass or conceal their
  deviance further enhances their isolation from
  society.
• This process of concealing or ignoring ones own
  deviance is called deviance disavowal.

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Goffmans Critiques

• There have been criticisms to Goffmans
  definitions because this view is biased towards
  individuals responses to stigma as mostly
  defensive and aimed toward reducing or avoiding
  the stigma.
• Some of the more recent findings support that
  stigmatized individuals are not passive in their
  responses, but rather seek to educate and be
  active in avowing their deviant status.

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Deviance Avowal

• These individuals or groups openly acknowledge
  their deviant status and try to balance their
  relationships with the normative society.
• The process of avowal includes many actions or
  methods such as making a joke of their status to
  break the ice, use explanations to normalize
  their deviance, and attempting to re-educate
  society in terms of their deviance.
• These actions allow the deviant to bridge the gap
  of normalcy in an attempt to be seen as not so
  far deviant as may have been thought (Adler
  Adler, 2002)

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The 3-stage Continuum of Stigma Management

• Reactive Stage
• Concealment strategies They tried to conceal
  their illness and and pass. However, it was
  found that this was a strain because it felt like
  a double-life.
• Selective disclosure choosing who they wanted
  to tell about their illness.
• Personal Attribution Strategies Attributing the
  cause of their illness to something other than
  one that could be stigmatized (i.e. a blood
  transfusion).

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Intermediate stage of Management

• 1. Gradual disclosure testing the waters.
  Maybe talking about AIDS in general to gauge
  others reaction to the subject.
• 2. Selective Affiliation Strategies
  Associating only with those people who have the
  similar illness. Building a support network.

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• 3. Discrediting the Discreditors Raising
  questions about the real motivations of those
  condemning or rejecting them. Religious Leaders
  because they believe homosexuality is evil,
  Medical Practitioners because they often treat
  those with AIDS as being ignorant or are fearful.
  They attack the legitimacy of their stigma.
• 4. Challenging Moral Attributions AIDS
  patients are divided into two categories the
  innocent (babies, blood transfer recipients) and
  the guilty (gay men, drug users, etc). They seek
  to educate that a virus isnt making a moral
  judgment, its just simply a virus.

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Proactive Stage of Management

• 1. Preemptive Disclosure Taking charge of when
  and the manner of their disclosure. By choosing
  to volunteer the information, they hope to reduce
  the impression that it is shameful. It also
  forces those who think the illness should be
  hidden (i.e. moral leaders, family members) to
  re-evaluate their own assumptions about the
  illness.
• 2. Public Education Strategies by addressing
  the assumptions and prejudices of people, they
  hope to reduce the attached stigma to having
  AIDS. Often they offer themselves as examples
  that refute the negative stereotypes and convince
  others of their continued normalcy.

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Proactive Stage continued

• 3. Social Activism The most proactive
  strategy. Demanding policy changes, increased
  funding for AIDS research, and protesting
  discrimination. By defying the stigma, activists
  assert the right to define their own identities.
  In addition to the participation in activism,
  there is an immediate benefit. They gain a
  community of strength, and receive an immediate
  social support network.