Khadija Khan

BA.LL.B - 2ND Year

Roll no. 37

Sociology Internal Assignment.

Submitted to :Prof. Quraltulain

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my very great appreciation to Prof. Quratulain for his valuable and constructive
suggestions during the planning and development of this research work on the Topic: Stigma and its
relation to social identity. Her willingness to give his time so generously has been very much
appreciated. It also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things I
am really thankful to him. Advice given by him has been a great help in completing my project in the
given period of time during this lockdown situation with limited number of sources.

Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their support and encouragement throughout my study.

Khadija Khan
Question: Explain the concept of stigma and its relation to
social identity.
Index
➢ Introduction
➢ Concept of Stigma
➢ Types of Stigma
➢ Stigma people responses
➢ Stigma relation to social identity
➢ Conclusion
Introduction
I am dealing with the topic Stigma and its relation to social identity where I briefly discuss about
the concept of stigma, its types, responses of stigma people and its relation to social identity.

Concept of Stigma
A stigma is an attribute, behavior or reputation which is socially discrediting in a particular way
it causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an undesirable, rejected stereotype
rather than in an accepted, normal one.it is an attribute that is deeply discrediting. A discrediting
attribute could be notably one’s skin color such as one's skin color or body type. Basically, it is a
look into the world that considered to be abnormal. Example of stigma include everything from
being born without nose or having had a limb amputated (immediately visible disfigurements /
disabilities) to urinary structure, or homosexuality which are more easily hidden. 1

Erving Goffman in his book Stigma notes on the management of spoiled identity written
about the idea of Stigma and what is like to be a stigmatized person. Stigma as defined by
Goffman, blends physical, and mental, voluntarily and involuntarily, visible and invisible, in
ways that are not always convincing. He says that stigma is a preferred component of social life
that complicates everyday micro-level interactions- the stigmatized can be cautious of attractive
with those who do not share their stigma and people without a sure stigma may additionally
disparage, overcompensate for , or try to forget about an attribute that stigmatizes one type of
possessor can confirm the usualness of another and therefore is neither creditable nor
discreditable as a thing in itself. 2 For example, some jobs in America cause holders without the
expected college education to conceal this fact; other jobs, however can lead the few of their

1
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.
2
Erving Goffman, Stigma Notes on the management of spoiled identity, 1963, California.
holders who have higher education to keep this a secret, lest they be marked as failures and
outsiders. Similarly, a middle-class boy may feel no compunction in being seen going to the
library. Goffman understand it as the bearer need to have a few types of difficulty for what others
think, and should internalize the social norms to which they fail to conform part of what
Goffman terms an individual's moral profession. In this way stigmas keep each psychological
and sociological additives.

Goffman wants stigma in both ways he identifies that stigma are in some ways contextual and
relational a feature that attracts negative attention and discrimination in one circumstance
however, then he turns around and emphasizes the truth that sure characteristics are viewed so
negatively that in a particular sociocultural milieu they will always be abnormal and deviant. In
his book Goffman also distinguishes stigma and deviance.

Types of Stigma
Goffman identifies three types of Stigma that are mentioned below 3:

➢ Abominations of the body ‘(that are physical: genetic deformities, scars etc.) in this he
says that is is a type of stigma that has various physical deformities.
➢ ‘’Blemishes of individual character’’ (that are generalized bad character, unnatural
passions, alcoholism etc.) in this type he says that it is a type of stigma which has
blemishes of individual character perceived as weak will, domineering or unnatural
passions , treacherous and rigid beliefs, dishonesty , these being in furred from a known
record of example, mental disorder, imprisonment, addictions, alcoholism ,
homosexuality , unemployment, suicidal attempts and radical political behavior.
➢ “Tribal“( that are group affiliation: race, nationality, religion etc.) in this he says that it is
a type of stigma are of race, nation and religion and these being stigma that can be
transmitted through lineages and equally contaminate all members of a family.

3
https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/stigma.
 Stigma people responses
Goffman also discussed about responses of stigmatized person he has discuss number of
responses that a stigmatized person can undergo for a plastic surgery. 4 They also make
unique efforts to catch up on their stigma along with drawing attention to every region of the
frame or to an impressive ability. They also can use their as an excuse for his or her loss of
fulfillment, they can see it as studying revel in or they can use it for criticizing normal.
Hiding but can cause similarly isolation, depression and anxiety and after they go out in
public they can flip, experience and more self – conscious and afraid to show anger or
different bad feelings.

Stigma relation to social identity.

Stigmatized people have limited opportunities they face discrimination in society to deal with
this situation they choose to hide their social identity for example, it has been established that
members of ethnic minorities try to adapt their accent or styles of speaking & that
homosexual tend to hide their sexual orientation. Stigmatized people were grouped as low
status group people. They focus on different dimensions of different groups. They involve in
different things to improve their social identity they even compete with other groups of
people. They always try to hide their stigmatized identity because they thought that it makes
them vulnerable to discrimination and expect that not revealing who they are will reduce
vulnerability.

4
https://www.thoughtco.com.
 Stigmatized group members are regularly exposed to negative stereotypes and expectation.
Their social identity always led to depress their self-confidence, leads to poorer
performance's evidences from past research shows that generally people with stigma that are
not immediately visible (example: mental illness) report lower psychological wellbeing than
people with visible stigma (partly handicaps). Stigmatized people hide their social identity
because they wish to protect themselves from negative expectation related to their
identification5. This approach appears to achieve success in convincing people who conceal
that they are in reality associated with positive expectation that they would were had found
out the stigmatized identification. This strategy seems to be successful. They hide their social
identity to achieve benefit of increasing performance related self-confidence and
performance. Self-confidence and performance gave benefited to them and have positive
expectation about the self and this is the main reason why they hide their identity. By hiding
their identity, we cannot say they will avoid negative expectation they are avoiding negative
expectation but not fully.

Differences were also over between in individual virtual and actual identity. The difference
when know about or obvious spoils his social identity it has the impact of cutting him from
society and from himself in order, he stands a discredited person facing an unaccepted world.

Conclusion
We can end discrimination for stigmatized people by treat them equally we can promote for
them participation in formulating care plans and crisis plans for mental illness people.
Providing cognitive behavioral therapy for people with mental ilness. Running regular
assessment for them.

5
https://www.researchgate.net.