Components Of Stigma Research Articles

At Issue: Stop the Stigma: Call Mental Illness a Brain Disease

Educating the public that mental illness is a brain disease is a popular strategy for combating mental illness stigma. Evidence suggests that while such an approach reduces blame for mental illness, it may unintentionally exacerbate other components of stigma, particularly the benevolence and dangerousness stigmas. Conversely, psychosocial explanations have proven promising, yet they ignore the growing evidence regarding genetic and biological factors. We propose a balanced approach that combats the various myths about mental illness with factual information.

The stigma of mental illness: effects of labelling on public attitudes towards people with mental disorder.

Aim of the study is to examine the impact of labelling on public attitudes towards people with schizophrenia and major depression. In Spring 2001, a representative survey was carried out in Germany involving adults of German nationality (n = 5025). Labelling as mental illness has an impact on public attitudes towards people with schizophrenia, with negative effects clearly outweighing positive effects. Endorsing the stereotype of dangerousness has a strong negative effect on the way people react emotionally to someone with schizophrenia and increases the preference for social distance. By contrast, perceiving someone with schizophrenia as being in need for help evokes mixed feelings and affects people's desire for social distance both positively and negatively. Labelling has practically no effect on public attitudes towards people with major depression. Our findings illustrate the need for differentiation, differentiation between the different components of stigma as well as differentiation between the various mental disorders.

Cognitive components of self esteem for individuals with severe mental illness.

In a sample of 182 individuals with severe mental illness, the applicability of reflected appraisals and self-enhancement theories as explanations for global self-esteem was examined at two time points on components of stigma, mastery, overall functioning, education, and job prestige. Path analysis demonstrated that the two theories work independently; and that stigma, mastery, and overall functioning are significant, persist over time, and have an enduring effect on self-esteem.

Amino-acid sequence of glycoproteins encoded by three alleles of the S locus of Brassica oleracea

The pollen–stigma interaction of self-incompatibility in the mustard family Brassicaceae is controlled by the S locus. Nearly fifty allelic variants at this locus control the specificity of this interaction. Identity of alleles in pollen and stigma results in an incompatible reaction and the arrest of pollen development. Genetic and developmental analyses of self-incompatibility in Brassica have identified a class of stigma glycoproteins exhibiting allele-specific isoforms as being among the products of the S-locus1–3. A cDNA clone encoding one of these S-locus specific glycoproteins has been isolated from B. oleracea4, and recently, N-terminal protein sequence analysis has shown extensive similarity between three S-locus specific glycoproteins from B. campestris5. Here, we describe cDNA clones encoding such glycoproteins from three different S-allele homozygous genotypes, and report the complete amino-acid sequence of the glycoproteins based on the nucleotide sequence of the cDNA clones. We identify allele-encoded differences in the protein sequences which may be relevant to the allelic specificity of the stigma component of the pollen–stigma interaction. The sequences from the sporophytically determined incompatibility system of Brassica show no similarity to the reported S-locus-associated cDNA sequence of the gametophytic Nicotiana self-incompatibility type6.

Status, Ideology, and Adaptation to Stigmatized Illness: A Study of Leprosy

The social and psychological components of stigma have been the subject of a series of recent essays by Erving Goffman, beginning with his interest in "impression management." By "impression management" he means the efforts made by people to create desired images about themselves in the face of the inescapable fact that whether a person wishes or not, his actions yield expressions about himself. Impression management is a way to "control the conduct of others, especially their responsive treatment" by controlling what they see and hear. In a later work Goffman focuses on persons characterized by stigma, or "undesired differentness," of which he identifies three general types: ( 1 ) physical disfigurement; (2) aberrations of character and/or personality; and (3) social categorizations such as race, nation, and religion. Since stigma may be visible or invisible, known about or not, impression management yields two sub-types: (1) the management of social in formation about self, and (2) the management of tension in interpersonal encounters. The management of information is the main task of "discreditable" individuals possessing a deeply discrediting attribute which may not be known or immediately perceivable to those present. The management of tension is the main task of the "discredited" - stigmatized individuals who can assume that their differentness is either already known or is immediately evident.