Interventions to reduce mental illness stigma will be most effective if based on solid scientific understanding of the social processes involved. The proposed research involves three features that hold significant promise for the construction of well grounded interventions. First, rather than focusing on attitudes of stigmatizers or adaptations of the stigmatized, we focus directly on an area that has been underrepresented in existing research - interpersonal interactions between stigmatized and non-stigmatized individuals. Second, existing research on interactions has not been conducted within a general theoretical framework nor has it led to interventions. We therefore translate a well developed program of theory, research and intervention expectation states theory (EST) - to the problem of stigma. EST research shows how status hierarchies based on characteristics such as gender and race are reproduced in social interactions, as well as how those hierarchies can be altered. Third, the rapidly expanding literature on mental illness stigma is largely based on survey methods and self-report outcome measures. As useful as this research has been, an experimental approach that includes behavioral assessments can be highly effective in adding to knowledge about stigma. Here we proposed the first steps in a program of research aimed at investigating whether EST and its interventions can be applied to stigma and whether stigma entails additional components to which interventions must attend. We propose two experiments in which participants interact with a partner who has been labeled with psychiatric hospitalization (stigma), not having finished high school (low status) or neither. We address the following aims: (1) EST research shows that a low-status label reduces one's influence in cooperative goal oriented interactions. Is this also true for a label of mental illness? (2) A label of mental illness increases interaction strain and social distance. Is this also true for a low-status label? (3) Assess whether mental illness combines additively or multiplicatively with other status characteristics. (4) Assess whether being labeled with mental illness or low educational attainment before an interaction affects mood, self- esteem and social withdrawal after the interaction, and assess the extent to which strain and negativity in the interaction mediate such labeling effects. Results from these studies will inform intervention efforts that seek the best ways to harness the power of interpersonal contact in reducing mental illness stigma. ? ? ?
| Phelan, Jo C; Lucas, Jeffrey W; Ridgeway, Cecilia L et al. (2014) Stigma, status, and population health. Soc Sci Med 103:15-23 |
| Lucas, Jeffrey W; Phelan, Jo C (2012) Stigma and Status: The Interrelation of Two Theoretical Perspectives. Soc Psychol Q 75:310-333 |
