11. The Discredited and the
Discreditable
Discredited: obviousdiscrepancy between individual’s
actual social identity and virtual one is.Ex: Amputee
Discreditable: differentness not immediately
apparent.Ex: Ex-Convict, sexuality
12. Social Information
Social information: characteristics conveyed by
a person, through bodily expression,
may confirm what other signs tell
us about the individual.
Symbols: signs that convey social information.Ex: club
membership buttons.
Status symbol: establishes claim to desirable class
position, honor.Ex: Owning a Ferrari
Stigma symbol: draw attention to a debasing identity
discrepancy, leads to reduction of individual’s value.
Ex: an educated middle class person repeatedly
mispronouncing a word.
13. Social Information
Disidentifiers: breaks up a positive coherent
presentation of person.Ex: eloquent speech of a prison inmate.
Possible for signs to mean different things to different
groups.
Ex: tattoos; “cool” for youth, parents may think otherwise.
Venous stigmata: can create unjustified suspicions.
Ex: distended capillaries on cheek and nose, can indicate
alcoholism BUT those who do not drink can exhibit these for
other physiological reasons.
Social identify of who an individual is “with” can inform
others’ opinion of his social identity.
Ex: If a person spends time with “jocks,” they may be seen as an
athlete as well.
14. Visibility
How stigma is adapted to show, or not show, that the individual
possesses it.
Ex: ex-mental patients do not have visible stigma; the blind are easily
visible.Three notions that are often confused with concept of
visibility:
1. must be distinguished from its “known-about-ness”
2. must be distinguished from obtrusiveness; how much does stigma
interfere with fluidity of interaction?
3. visibility of stigma (as well as obtrusiveness) must be disentangled
from certain possibilities of “perceived focus”
Ex: ugliness (stigma focused on social situations) vs. diabetes (no
initial effect on face-to-face interaction qualifications).
15. Personal Identity
Stigma management does not simply pertain to interactions
with strangers, or public life.
Breaking through: individual with stigma attempts to reach personal level where
stigma is not a crucial factor, hopefully develop normalization contact with
normals.Ex: my sister’s visible physical disability becomes normalized to her
classmates as the school year progresses.
Familiarity may not reduce contempt.
Ex: white people living in the presence of people of color may maintain their racial
prejudices.
Historical and societal expectations and standardizations come into play.
Individual’s intimates may also be “put off” by stigma.
Ex: homosexuals concealing their sexuality from their families.
Some stigmas only effect intimates because it can hide from strangers and
acquaintances.
Ex: having an STD is not apparent to the public, but one’s sexual partner has to
know.
16. Personal Identity
Uniqueness: each member in a small,
long-standing social circle has unique/defining characteristics.
Individual can be differentiated from all others,
single continuous record of social facts can be attached.
Personal identity Aspects:
1. Positive marks/identity pegs.
2. Unique combination of life history attempts that are attached to
individual
Can also acquire a personal identity not their “own.”
Ex: scarring fingertips, re-naming
Name is common, but not reliable, way of fixing identity.
Documentation: allow no error or ambiguity, safeguard against potential
misrepresentation of social identity.
17. Discussion Questions
• How do you believe the notions of “discredited” and
“discreditable” have changed with the increasingly
popularity of the internet and online communities?
• Do you think it would be easier to live with a
“discredited” or “discreditable” stigma?
21. Discussion
-What types of deviance are most relevant to
Goffman’s ideas on “passing”? For what
types of deviance is “passing” as normal not
an option?
-Do you think "passing" is something we all do
to some extent?
22. Chapter 2: Information Control
& Personal Identity
(pp. 95-104)
The Screaming O’s
(Group 3)
35. Discuss...
Why cover, as opposed to pass?
Can you think of instances when a stigmatized
individual feels above passing because
he/she feels their self-acceptance & self-
respect negate the need to conceal their
failing?
37. Identity: Social, Personal, & Ego
• Social and personal
identity are made up by
other people's concerns
and definitions
• Personal identity can
begin to be constructed
before an individual is
born and even after that
person is buried
• Ego identity must be felt
by the individual whose
38. Ambivalence
• Those stigmatized feel • Concern with in-group
a tendency to stratify purification: efforts of
their "own" according to stigmatized people to
the degree to which not only "normify" their
their stigma is apparent own conduct, but that
• More identity of others in the group
ambivalence when own too.
kind is behaving in a • Nearing: When an
stereotyped way individual comes close
to an undesirable
instance of his own
kind while with a
normal
39. Professional Presentations
- There exists a self-contradiction of individuals who
think they aren't any different from everyone else,
while they and others realize that they are somehow
different.
- Deviants are warned against passing completely, but
also warned against fully accepting their own
negative attitudes toward them.
40. Minstrelization
- Deviants are warned against
minstrelization, "acting out before normals,
the full dance of bad qualities"
http://youtu.be/nBmNcy4zZNU
41. Normification/De-minstrelizaton
- Deviants are also warned against
normification/deminstrelization, "acting overly normal
in from of normals, so that they are perceived as nice
people, despite their deviance"
42. 2 Implications of these "codes"
1. It can cause those who are deviant to
become overly conscious of social
situations, so they are observers, not
participants.
2. This type of advice deals candidly with
very private matters, as acts of deviance
tend to be personal.
43. In-Group Alignments
• The spokesman for the group of like-minded individuals says that this
• is the individuals only “true” group
This group is comprised of individuals who have experienced the same
• type of stigma
If the individual turns to his group he is characterized as loyal and
•
•
authentic
If the individual turns away from the group he is a fool and a traitor
One consequence of having an in-group standpoint is the rise of
• militant ideology
The militant individual will give praise to his groups special and often
stereotypical attributes while favoring a secessionist ideology from the
normals
45. Out-Group Alignment
•Stigmatized individuals vs. the “normal”
population
–Stigmatized individual should see himself as a
complete human being, with the ability to
fulfill “ordinary standards”
•The stigmatized individual should not feel
resentful towards themselves or the
normal population
46. Out-Group Alignment Cont…
•Focus on a balance of downplaying one’s stigma,
while giving it enough validity so normal people
don’t feel uncomfortable about it
•Good Adjustment – Requires that the stigmatized
individual cheerfully and unselfconsciously
accept himself as essentially the same as
normals, while at the same time he voluntarily
withholds himself from those situations in
which normals would find it difficult to give lip
service to their similar acceptance of him.” -
121
47. The Politics of Identity
• As a result of the misalignment between
the in-group and the out-group the
stigmatized views himself as "different"
even when he is a member of the wider
group.
• This leads to a state of semi-acceptance
within the social group which adds
confusion to one's ego identity.
48. Discussion Questions
• What is the difference between "In-Group"
and "Out-Group" Alignment?
• What do you think are some good
examples of "Good Adjustment?"
49. Stigma by Erving Goffman
Chapter 4: The Self and Its Other
XOXO, JAVIER SLAMM AND THE PEENYWHACKERS
50. Deviations and Norms
• Stigmatized vs. normal: everyone is at once
stigmatized and normal from different/various
perspectives (ex: Miley Cyrus smoking legal drug
salvia, friends find it normal, stigmatized by public)
• Failure/Success of achieving/maintaining norms of
identity has a huge impact on individuals'
psychological well-being (ex:person has physical
disorder out of their control...can make them
depressed, they cannot control it so they feel
helpless)
51. Deviations and Norms
• Identity norms breed both deviations and conformity
(ex: appropriate party attire…most people dress up a
little or a lot -conformists- but some wear sloppy or
revealing clothes and are stigmatized -deviants-)
• Focus on ordinary deviations from the common, not
uncommon deviations from the ordinary
52. Deviations and Norms
• Cooperation between deviants and normals: normals
ignore, respect, or pass over deviant behaviors/traits,
and deviants don't push the boundaries of
acceptance from normals (most people do anything
to avoid awkward situations)
• Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2JBjEtNSSc
53. Deviations and Norms
• Impression management: individual controls image
that he/she portrays to others or wants others to see
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlOoCwZQvMg
• Also "passing" and "covering"
54. The Normal Deviant
• Stigma management occurs wherever there are
identity norms.
• Even when an individual is deviant, he or she often
has normal concerns about it.
• Individual employs normal strategies in attempting
to conceal it.
• e.g. Someone likes to sleep naked, doesn't tell
friends, wears pj's during sleepovers
55. The Normal Deviant
• Deviant leaders act respective to their environments.
• e.g. Performance.
56. Stigma and Reality
• Stigmatized and normal are a part of each other…
they aren’t people, they are perspectives generated in
social situations
• The stigmatized can:
• Pass for fun
• Play games
• Give brief responses
• A cold stare
• Every individual participates in both roles (normal
and stigmatized)
57. Stigma and Reality
• Different types of stigma have different functions
• Stigmatization of those with bad moral record serves as a
means of formal social control
• Stigmatization of certain racial, religious and ethnic groups
functions as a means of removing these minorities from
various avenues of competition
58. Discussion Question
• What is more important to focus on, the norms
themselves or the deviations from those norms?
60. Uses of Goffman’s Work
Stigma paved way for studies on:
1. Groups of stigmatized populations
2. Groups categorized by symbols of stigma
3. “Minor” bodily stigmas
62. Discussion Questions
• How do you believe the notions of
“discredited” and “discreditable” have
changed with the increasingly popularity of
the internet and online communities?
• Do you think it would be easier to live with
a “discredited” or “discreditable” stigma?
• Why cover, as opposed to pass?
63. Discussion Questions
• Can you think of instances when a
stigmatized individual feels above passing
because he/she feels their self-
acceptance & self-respect negate the
need to conceal their failing?
• What is the difference between "In-Group"
and "Out-Group" Alignment?
• What do you think are some good
examples of "Good Adjustment?”
64. Discussion Questions
• What is more important to focus on, the
norms themselves or the deviations from
those norms?
• Must individuals always manage their
stigma?
• What about stigmas that are “minor” or
only known or imagined to individual?
65. Discussion Questions
• Rather focus on stigmatized individuals,
should we address “normals” in order to
reduce stigma?
• How can we challenge institutionalization
and criminalization of stigmatized
identities and experiences?
66. Thank You!
• Student Presentations
• Spring 2012
• SOC260 Deviance
• Occidental College
• Professor Danielle Dirks
• http://deviance.iheartsociology.com
