Social Stigma and Self-Stigma Analysis PDF

o **Prestige** -- often based on occupation (ex. Being a doctor, lawyer). Minority group members have lower paid jobs typically (ex. Janitor). Stigma -- Social and Self  A stigma is extreme disapproval of a person based on some behavior or quality of that person. Typically, a culture (or sub-cu...

o **Prestige** -- often based on occupation (ex. Being a doctor, lawyer). Minority group members have lower paid jobs typically (ex. Janitor). Stigma -- Social and Self  A stigma is extreme disapproval of a person based on some behavior or quality of that person. Typically, a culture (or sub-culture) will stigmatize a person based on overt physical deformations (physical disability), deviant personal traits (drug addiction), or deviation from accepted norms of the ethnic group (being a "loose" woman in a traditional Latino subculture).  **Social Sigma** - Extreme disapproval/discrediting of individual by society -- comes in 2 forms: 1. **social stigma** and 2. **self-stigma**  1. Social Stigma: o Social stigma can be fuelled or associated with several other key concepts: **stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination**. Relationship/overlap between stigma and these is unclear and is variable depending on source. § Derived from symbolic interactionist perspective. § Calls attention to how certain individuals or groups face social disapproval. Often, the social disapproval is associated with a behavior, identity, or other attribute that is considered deviant by others" § Associated with an attribute that is devalued § o Social stigma against mental health is big problem -- ex. stereotype is mentally ill are violent (cognition), I become scared of mentally ill (affect, prejudice), so may not want to live with them or hire them (behavior, discrimination) o Social-stigma and components can vary a great deal by sociopolitical context (sexual orientation for example).  Self-Stigma: o Self-stigma is when individual can internalize all the negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory experiences they've had, and may begin to feel rejected by society, avoid interacting with society. o Ex. someone who has HIV/AIDS and feels the social-stigma may go into denial that they have the condition, experiences hits from self-esteem and suffer from depression (negative mental health), and display behaviours that isolate themselves from society and stop them from taking part in vocation/education/other social activities for example (further isolating them). 232  Stigma can be studied by concentric circles. o Let's imagine four circles from deep to superficial*: First circle = self* (individual who is stigmatized), *second = family (close social group), third = wider society,* *fourth = media (important external society).* o Bidirectional relationships between all these groups. o **Media:** outer circle**.** Major source of stigma, because can depict conditions as being dangerous, violent, moral-failings (ex. This occurs in media representation of mental illness) etc. Also creates stigma against: HIV/AIDS, Obesity, substance use problems. § *Social media* is also huge component in creating stigma. § We need to have guidelines for journalists to reduce the stigma in society. o **Society** -- interactions between self and society like education/employment/health care and stigmatizing views can affect individual to get a job (earning an income), in healthcare (to get appropriate level of healthcare, follow-up care, getting a screening), etc. A great intervention to stop societal level stigma is the use of **legislation and anti-discrimination laws.** o **Family** -- family can be shunned by society (if they have a family member with stigmatizing condition), or family might shun individual themselves. Ex. isolate the individual who is stigmatized against in the family and keep isolate/as secret within family. May be detrimental to personal/intimate relationships, and *interventions like education/therapy are important.* 233 o **Self** -- core circle -- media, society, family interactions can be internalized by an individual and can lead to avoidance, denial of condition, suffering of mental health conditions, and no longer participating in society. Useful interventions include educating, access to support groups/resources. Social Perception -- Primacy and Recency Bias  *First impressions count!* They're 1) **long** (lasts a long time) 2) **strong** (tough to overcome) and 3) **easily built upon** (people put extra emphasis on info that helps reinforce first impression, and not info that doesn't....ex. you are a messy person, people will look at your messy room instead of your tidy desk). o Called the **primacy bias**: first impression is more important than later data.  Your most recent actions are also very important, and people place a lot of emphasis on your recent actions/recent performances, more than ones before -- the **recency bias**. o Ex: you're only as good as your last game, last match.  Information retention (memory) relates to primacy and recency bias. o Primacy and recency events are more important to developing memory. o In Variable duration (in between primacy/recency -- you might remember some actions a bit more if an action is unusual or elicits an unusual response in you. 234 Social Perception -- The Halo Effect  The **halo effect** is tendency people have inherently good/bad natures, rather than looking at individual characteristics. Ex. the **physical attractiveness stereotype** -- believe attractive people have more positive personality traits.  Ex. Jim, our initial overall impression is in the middle. His accounting rating/skills is very high, sales are negative, and leadership is moderately good. o **Halo effect** -- as if someone has a halo over their head. If we have an overall positive first impression, we start to analyze all their skills based on our overall first impression rather than just skills. They get an overall boost in each of their skills because of our impression. § Ex: Now imagine, he has overall very good impression, even though he has the same actual skillset. We would *perceive* that the person is much better at other skills not demonstrated. Regardless of evidence, We may perceive he's actually pretty good at sales instead of below average, We may say he is extra-ordinary in leadership and accounting instead of just good. o Halo effect often happens with celebrities, and greater attractiveness. § Ex; we think attractive people are kind, good leaders, hospitable without actual evidence.  Now imagine someone who we think is overall very poor. Even if baseline skills are same, we perceive them to all be lower -- the **devil effect/reverse halo effect**. Can carry over into how we see other attributes about the person. Happens if overall negative impression or if one attribute is very negative. o Ex: From being good at accounting we can perceive them as being mediocre, we can perceive someone as being awful at sales (even though they are great). We 235 can see them as having terrible leadership (instead of being moderately good). The reduction of our perception depends on the situation.  Ex: Halo effect: Teacher sees kid who is good can't do no wrong. Reverse-halo/devil effect: Kid who is wrong that can do no right Social Perception -- The Just World Hypothesis  "You got what you deserve". "you got what was coming to you".  The **"Just World Hypothesis**" - Predictable result as a consequence for our actions. Noble actions performed/good deeds by an individual are rewarded, while evil acts/deeds are always punished. o Ex: our college Tom does a *noble-act* (helps an old lady cross the road. We would expect a predictable appropriate consequence such as a *reward.* o Ex: Tom performs an evil act, he gets punished. o Suggests there is some kind of special force, "cosmic justice" at play. o Reason people think in this way because it *helps individuals rationalize their or* *others good*/fortune or *misfortune*. Also allows people to feel like they can influence their world -- easier to engage in goal oriented behavior and plan for the future. Ex. if I go to school I will be rewarded in life. If I work hard, I will get what I want. If I do the right thing, I will get rewarded. o However, just-world doesn't always hold true -- people are not always rewarded for their actions and punished for their evil deeds. Ex. Using this just-world hypothesis we may blame people in poverty for being poor because they deserve it. Or victims of domestic violence for being victims because they deserved it.  When the "*just world hypothesis*" is *threatened* (which occurs on a daily basis, we say "the world is not fair"....we see evil deeds being rewarded and good deeds being punished), we need to mentally make sense of them to keep just world hypothesis in tact-- we use **rational techniques or irrational techniques** o **Rational Techniques:** § 1. Accept reality § 2. Prevent or correct injustice -- with charities, sign a petition or changes to legal system o **Irrational techniques** can also be used § 1. Denial of the situation -- refuse to accept the situation § 2. Reinterpreting the events -- change our interpretation of the *outcome*, the *cause*, and the character of the victim.  Ex. If a Victim of violence that was hurt, they were really hurt, we can reinterpret outcome(wasn't that bad, it was a trip, it could have happened to anyone), reinterpret cause (victim was working in a bad neighborhood), or reinterpret character of victim(I always thought she was a good human being but I now realize she probably isn't, she was hanging around with the wrong people, etc.) 236  **Attribution Theory** - how do we explain the behavior of other people? o Split up into internal causes and external causes. o JWH overemphasizes/attribute people's actions to personal/dispositional/internal factors and underemphasise situational factors that are at play. § Ex; poor person = personal miss-failings instead of recognizing the complex situational/environmental causes. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism In-Group and Out-Group  **Ethnography**: Study of particular people and places. It is a more of an approach than a single research method in that it generally combines several research methods including interviews, observation, and physical trace measures. Good ethnography truly captures a sense of the place and peoples studied.  **Ethnocentric: j**udging someone else's culture from the position of your own culture o Viewing our own culture to be superior to that of others o Can lead to cultural bias and prejudice o Using one's own cultural standards, such as norms and values, to make judgements about another culture.  **Cultural relativism: t**he practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one's own culture. Judge and understand another culture from within their culture -- o No absolute right or wrong, but we have different cultures which are themselves valid. o *Important to consider:* Can falter if someone uses it to conduct activities that violate rights of humans no matter what culture they're from. o *"Refers to an awareness of differences across cultures in norms, values, and* *other elements of culture"*  **Xenocentrism**: judging another culture as superior to one's own culture  **Cultural imperialism:** the deliberate imposition of one's own cultural values on another culture.  People within groups share psychological connection between peers, related to politics/culture/spirituality. o **"In" group** -- the one we are connected with. "US". Stronger interactions with those in the in-group than those in the out-group. Interactions are more common and more influential as well within In-group. o **"Out" group --** "THEM". Group we're not associated with, "group of people who we do not feel connected too" o **In-Group favouritism** -- we favour/friendly to people in our own group, but those in out-group we are neutral -- we don't give them favours we do to our in-group. o **Out-group derogation** -- we are super friendly to our in group, but not friendly to out group -- we discriminate. Happens if we feel that the out group is threatening to or undermine in group's success. 237 o **Group polarization** -- Group makes decisions that are more *extreme* than any individual member in the group would want. This can turbo charge the group's viewpoints. Attributing Behaviors to persons or situations xSelf Esteem, Self Efficacy, and Locus of Control See notes above xSelf Concept, Self Identity, and Social Identity See notes above xSocial Influences See notes above xLocus of Control, Learned Helplessness, and the Tyranny of Choice See notes above 238 Social Behavior Proximity and the Mere Exposure Effect  **Geographical proximity** /nearness is most powerful predictor of friendships and relationships. o People date, like, marry people of the same neighborhood or those that sit next to in class or work in the same office. o Mating starts with a meeting -- Why is proximity so powerful for relationship formation? 1. We aren't going to fall in love with someone we don't meet. You can't start a relationship/befriend those who live far away. Even with social media, and easy travel/connection with individuals far away -- rule of proximity is still true (even if you take internet dating into account).  **Mere exposure effect** = repeated exposure to novel people or objects increases our liking for them. More often we see something, more often we like it. Applies to everything -- music, nonsense syllabus, numbers, objects, etc. o There are exceptions, but in general true. Especially with attraction. § Exceptions: you start hating orange juice, start to despise song you hear over and over on the radio. This is called "burn out" but most things do not violate the mere-exposure o Ex. Study 1: focus on attraction. Researchers had undergrads rate attractiveness where males rated women's attractiveness, then took 2 women rated similarly and placed them in same class as the male rater. After 5,10, or 15 classes males rated the woman who was with them in 15 classes higher than those women who they attended classes with 5-10 times -- even though they rated the two the same initially before the repeated exposures. § Whom we say day to day are more attractive and likeable. o Ex. Study 2. study with individuals who had **anterograde amnesia** (retrograde amnesia is loss of all memory before an accident that causes amnesia, anterograde amnesia individuals can recall memory that was formed before an incident but cannot form new memory after accident). Showed them faces, and then showed them faces again at later date, with some new faces along with some old. Ask individual if they've seen before, say no. But if ask which one attractive, they still pick the face they've seen before o Even if they are incapable of forming the memory they have seen a person before, they still consider them more attractive. *Shows us how subtle this mere* *exposure effect is.* o **Advertisers** know this effect. They depend on the mere exposure effect to sell you different products. More times we see a brand more likely we are to form a positive opinion about it. 239 Physical Attraction  What does physical attraction mean, and are there things attractive to all people?  There are cultural differences, but some things are **universally attractive** -- attractive across cultural backgrounds. Things like youthfulness, skin clarity/smoothness, body symmetry. For women, low waist-hip ratio and full breasts. For men, muscular chest and V-shaped torso (broad shoulders, narrow waste).  **Facial attraction** is more important than body attraction. For women, high forehead/small chin and nose/full lips/high cheekbone are attractive. For men, strong chin, jaw, cheekbones, and long lower face. o Both men and women are attracted to high level sexual dimorphism -- the degree of difference between male and female anatomical traits. \[We are attracted to strong facial features of opposite gender\] o *Also* **averageness is attractive** -- turns out unique traits are not most attractive. Attractiveness is related to averageness. Most respondents pick 32 face average "face morph (faces digitized and averaged)" as most attractive, and 2 face average less. § Even if you average 32 different faces, still looks the same as the average of 32 other faces. Suggests there's some prototype. (there is facial averageness).  Subtler things also influence attractiveness -- ex. red background more attractive than white background.  Unrelated physiological arousal also influences attraction -- individuals who just walked across narrow bridge (sympathetic arousal) leads to increased rating of woman. Because during attraction sympathetic arousal occurs as well, ex. fast heartbeat. (you rate a woman while crossing a bridge higher because you are experiencing sympathetic arousal as when compared to rating the same woman while walking across the street.) o When you are physically attracted to someone you experience this fast heartbeat (sympathetic arousal too). o Our brain recognizes the sympathetic arousal from high height and being attracted together. o For someone to be attracted to you -- take them on a date to the amusement park. Similarity  How similar someone is to us is huge predictor of attraction.  Close friends and couples are more likely to share common attitudes, beliefs, interests, and values. We tend to partner up with people who match our age, race, religion, and economic status/educational level. We like people who are like ourselves in looks. o Demonstrated through experimentation and correlation/surveys. o One study, two people brought in the lab and they were told they were going to be playing a game. One person was a confederate (in on the study the entire time). Participants were split into 2 conditions. 1. Participants saw a picture of 240 the other player and in 2. Picture shown of other participant w/ some of their own facial features mapped onto it. Results show that the individual was more likely to cooperate with the other player when the other player has similar facial feature as to his own. § Person is more likely to trust/cooperate with the person who had similar characteristics (of the photo of someone whose facial features are morphed with their own). o Also more likely to think individual is attractive when their facial features are morphed with their own. o More likely to vote for political candidates whose photographs have been changed to include our facial feature. o *We like people like us (same interests/attitudes) as well people like us who are* *similar to us on any level (like sharing same physical features).*  Similarity can help people stay together. Does it help them stay together? Research has shown yes. o Couples can also stay together due to **perceived similarity** -- because over time interests/beliefs are more aligned. Become similar as time goes on. Perceived similarity can be just perceived -- they think the other person is similar to them (but actually aren't similar to their partners at all).  Could result in a **similarity bias** -- implies we will not befriend people different from us.  A **projection bias** is when we assume other share the same beliefs we do.  **False consensus** is when we assume everyone else agrees with what we do, even if they do not. Harlow Monkey Experiments  What causes **attachment** (a close bond) between mother and child? Scientists used to think it was food (mom has food). This is not true...mother provides more than that!  Scientists conducted the **Harlow monkey experiments** o Separated monkeys from mothers at young age (controversial today), then given choice between 2 substitute mothers (vaguely monkey-shaped structures) that were placed in cage with baby monkey. § First option was wire mother -- vaguely face like shape on top of it, and chicken wire wrapped in cylinder. And in middle was feeding tube. This mother provides food. § Second mother was the cloth mother -- same shape/size as mother, but instead of chicken wire had soft cloth blanket around it, so this mother can provide comfort. § Baby monkeys overwhelmingly preferred to cloth mother -- spent a large majority of time clinging to her. If had to eat, tried to eat while staying attached to cloth mother. Shows that attachment basis to mother is due to comfort, not food!