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Culture and stigma: adding moral experience to stigma theory
Lawrence Hsin Yang1, Arthur Kleinman, Bruce G Link
1Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, Room 1610, NY, NY 10032, USA. laryang@attglobal.net
Social Science & Medicine (1982)
|December 26, 2006
Summary
Stigma is a moral issue threatening what matters most to individuals. Understanding stigma as a moral experience offers new ways to measure and combat its negative effects on mental health.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Medical Sociology
- Mental Health Research
Background:
- Stigma research has evolved from individualistic to social perspectives.
- Existing theories often focus on individual assessments of stigma.
- A gap exists in understanding stigma's deeper social and moral dimensions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and explore stigma as an essentially moral issue.
- To provide a new interpretive lens using the concept of moral experience.
- To examine how stigma threatens core values and lived experiences.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of stigma as a moral process.
- Case studies of mental illness in China and schizophrenia in the US.
- Examination of the Chinese concept of 'face' to illustrate moral-somatic and moral-emotional dimensions.
Main Results:
- Stigma's core effects involve threatening or diminishing what is most at stake for individuals.
- Stigma can be understood through moral-somatic and moral-emotional dimensions.
- Existing research predominantly focuses on individual-level stigma measurement.
Conclusions:
- The concept of moral experience offers a novel framework for understanding and measuring stigma.
- Identifying stigma as a moral experience can inform new anti-stigma interventions.
- Future research should employ transactional methodologies and multiple perspectives to capture stigma's interpersonal core.
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