Social Stigma - Stigma, Weight Stigma (Paperback)

Chapters: Stigma, Weight Stigma. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Social stigma is severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are perceived to be against cultural norms. Examples of existing or historical social stigmas include mental illness, physical disabilities and diseases such as leprosy, about which leprosy stigma may also be called, as well as illegitimacy, skin tone or affiliation with a specific nationality, religion (or lack of religion) or being deemed to be or proclaiming oneself to be of a certain ethnicity, in any of a myriad of geopolitical and corresponding sociopolitical contexts in various parts of the world. The perception or attribution, rightly or wrongly, of criminality carries a strong social stigma. Stigma comes in three forms: Firstly, overt or external deformations, such as scars, physical manifestations of anorexia nervosa, leprosy (leprosy stigma), or of a physical disability or social disability, such as obesity. Secondly, deviations in personal traits, including mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, and criminal backgrounds are stigmatized in this way. Thirdly, "tribal stigmas" are traits, imagined or real, of ethnic groups, nationalities, or religions that are deemed to constitute a deviation from what is perceived to be the prevailing normative ethnicity, nationality or religion. Stigma is generally based on stereotypical and uninformed impressions or characterizations of a given subject. Although the specific social categories that become stigmatized can vary across times and places, the three basic forms of stigma (physical deformity, poor personal traits, and tribal outgroup status) are found in most cultures and time periods, leading some psychologists to hypothesize that the...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=969806