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Labeling theory (or social reaction theory) is concerned with how the self-identity and behavior of an individual is influenced (or created) by how that individual is categorized and described by others in their society. Originating in sociology and criminology, the theory focuses on the linguistic tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from norms, and is associated with the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. The theory was prominent in the 1960s and 1970s but is less so today, although a common usage rejects an unwanted descriptor or categorization (including terms related to deviance, disability or a diagnosis of mental illness) as being a label, often with attempts to adopt a more constructive language in its place. The self-concept or self-identity is the mental and conceptual awareness and persistent regard that sentient beings hold with regard their own being. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the systematic and scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social action, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous... Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. ... Deviant behavior is behavior that is a recognized violation of cultural norms. ... The word norm coming from the latin word norma which means angle measure or (lawlike) rule, has a number of meanings: A social or sociological norm; see norm (sociology). ... A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true. ... For the term used in Computing, see Stereotype (computing). ... DEViANCE ASCII logo by Strick9. ... Look up disability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A mental illness or mental disorder refers to one of many mental health conditions characterized by distress, impaired cognitive functioning, atypical behavior, emotional dysregulation, and/or maladaptive behavior. ...

Discussion

As an application of phenomenology, the theory hypothesizes that the labels applied to individuals influence their behavior, particularly the application of negative or stigmatizing labels (such as "criminal" or "felon") promote deviant behavior, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, i.e. an individual who is labeled has little choice but to conform to the essential meaning of that judgment. Consequently, labeling theory postulates that it is possible to prevent social deviance via a limited social shaming reaction in "labelers" and replacing moral indignation with tolerance. Emphasis is placed on the rehabilitation of offenders through an alteration of their label(s). Related prevention policies include client empowerment schemes, mediation and conciliation, victim-offender forgiveness ceremonies, restitution, reparation, and alternatives to prison programs involving diversion. Labeling theory has been accused of promoting impractical policy implications, and criticized for failing to explain society's most serious offenses. This article is about the philosophical movement. ... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ... A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime; misdemeanors are considered to be less serious. ... Deviant redirects here. ... A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true. ... Morality (from the Latin manner, character, proper behaviour) has three principal meanings. ... It has been suggested that toleration be merged into this article or section. ... This theory of punishment is based on the notion that punishment is to be inflicted on a offender so as to reform him, or rehabilitate him so as to make his re-integration into society easier. ... Look up Empowerment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For statistical mediation, see Mediation (Statistics). ... Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution process whereby the parties to a dispute (including future interest disputes) agree to utilize the services of a conciliator, who then meets with the parties separately in an attempt to resolve their differences. ... For other uses, see Forgiveness (disambiguation). ... Restitution is the name given to a form of legal relief in which the plaintiff recovers something from the defendant that belongs, or should belong, to the plaintiff. ... In the philosophy of justice, reparation is the idea that a just sentence ought to compensate the victim of a crime appropriately. ... A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit. ...

Social construction

As a contributor to American Pragmatism and later a member of the Chicago School, George Herbert Mead posited that the self is socially constructed and reconstructed through the interactions which each person has with the community. Each individual is aware of how they are judged by others because he or she has attempted many different roles and functions in social interactions and has been able to gauge the reactions of those present. This builds a subjective conception of the self, but as others intrude into the reality of that individual's life, this represents objective data which may require a re-evaluation of that conception depending on the authoritativeness of the others' judgment. Family and friends may judge differently from random strangers. More socially representative individuals such as police officers or judges may be able to make more globally respected judgments. If deviance is a failure to conform to the rules observed by most of the group, the reaction of the group is to label the person as having offended against their social or moral norms of behavior. This is the power of the group: to designate breaches of their rules as deviant and to treat the person differently depending on the seriousness of the breach. The more differential the treatment, the more the individual's self-image is affected. Pragmatism is a school of philosophy which originated in the United States in the late 1800s. ... There are several Chicago schools, a name derived from programs and departments at the University of Chicago and not the city of Chicago itself. ... George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. ... A community is a social group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. ... a family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 Family is a Western term used to denote a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups linked through descent (demonstrated or stipulated) from a common ancestor, marriage or adoption. ... For other uses, see Friendship (disambiguation). ... Police officers in South Australia A police officer (or policeman/policewoman) is a warranted worker of a police force. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Whether a breach of a given rule will be stigmatized as "boo boo politics" will depend on the significance of the moral or other tenet it represents. For example, adultery may be considered a breach of an informal rule or it may be criminalized depending on the status of marriage, morality, and religion within the community. In most Western countries, adultery is not a crime. Attaching the label "adulterer" may have some unfortunate consequences but they are not generally severe. But in some Islamic countries, zina is a crime and proof of extramarital activity may lead to severe consequences for all concerned. Morality (from the Latin manner, character, proper behaviour) has three principal meanings. ... This article is about the act of adultery. ... Main Entry: crim·i·nal·ize Pronunciation: kri-m&-n&l-Iz, krim-n&-lIz Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): -ized; -iz·ing to make illegal : OUTLAW; also : to turn into or treat as a criminal - crim·i·nal·i·za·tion /kri-m&-n&l-&-zA-sh&n... Marriage is an interpersonal relationship with governmental, social, or religious recognition, usually intimate and sexual, and often created as a contract, or through civil process. ... Zina (زنا) is an Arabic term for extramarital or premarital sex. ...

There are also problems with stereotypes. The breach of a rule may be treated differently depending on personal factors such as the age, gender, race, etc. of the rule-breaker, or there may be relevant structural factors such as the offender's social class, the neighborhood where the offense took place, the time of day or night, etc. For other uses, see Stereotype (disambiguation). ... Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ...

Labeling theory and mental illness

Labeling theory has also been applied to the mentally ill. This was first done in 1966 when Thomas Scheff published Being Mentally Ill. Scheff challenged common perceptions of mental illness by claiming that mental illness is manifested solely as a result of societal influence. He argued that society views certain actions as deviant and, in order to come to terms with and understand these actions, often places the label of mental illness on those who exhibit them. Certain expectations are then placed on these individuals and, over time, they unconsciously change their behavior to fulfill them. Criteria for different mental illnesses are not consistently filled by those who are diagnosed with them because all of these people suffer from the same disorder, they are simply fulfilled because the “mentally ill” believe they are supposed to act a certain way so, over time, come to do so. The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... A mental illness or mental disorder refers to one of many mental health conditions characterized by distress, impaired cognitive functioning, atypical behavior, emotional dysregulation, and/or maladaptive behavior. ... Deviant behavior is behavior that is a recognized violation of cultural norms. ...

Scheff’s theory has had many critics, most notably Walter Gove. Gove has consistently argued an almost opposite theory; he believes that society has no influence at all on mental illness. Instead, any societal perceptions of the mentally ill come about as a direct result of these people’s behaviors. In Gove’s view, the mentally ill behave unnaturally a lot of the time because of their disorders, so we treat them differently.

Most sociologists’ views of labeling and mental illness fall somewhere between the extremes of Gove and Scheff. Especially considering recent research on the biological roots of manic depression and schizophrenia, it is difficult to believe that mental illness is always a result of society. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to deny, given both common sense and research findings, that society’s negative perceptions of “crazy” people has had some effect on them. It seems that, realistically, labeling can accentuate and prolong mental illness, but it is rarely the full cause of symptoms. Manic depression, with its two principal sub-types, bipolar disorder and major depression, was first clinically described near the end of the 19th century by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, who published his account of the disease in his Textbook of Psychiatry. ...

Bruce G. Link and his colleagues have conducted several studies which point to the influence that labeling can have on mental patients. Through these studies, which took place in 1987, 1989, and 1997, Link has demonstrated that expectations of labeling can have a large negative effect on the mentally ill, that these expectations often cause patients to withdraw from society, and that the mentally ill are constantly being rejected from society in seemingly minor ways but that, when taken as a whole, all of these small slights can drastically alter their self concepts. It is obvious that the mentally ill both anticipate and perceive negative societal reactions to them, and that this can potentially damage their quality of life.

Many other studies have been conducted in this general vein. To provide a few examples, several studies have indicated that most people associate being labeled mentally ill as being just as, or even more, stigmatizing than being seen as a drug addict, ex-convict, or prostitute (for example: Brand & Claiborn 1976). Additionally, Page’s 1977 study found that self declared “ex-mental patients” are much less likely to be offered apartment leases or hired for jobs. Clearly, these studies and the dozens of others like them serve to demonstrate that labeling can have a very real and very large effect on the mentally ill. None of these studies, nor any other published ones, however, prove that labeling is the sole cause of any symptoms of mental illness. Drug addiction, or dependency is the compulsive use of drugs, to the point where the user has no effective choice but to continue use. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ...

Unlike when applied to the criminal world, the label of “mentally ill” can sometimes have a positive effect on the person who receives it. Once a person is labeled, he or she knows to seek the correct help. There is extensive literature which points to the effectiveness of psychotherapy, a strategy that is utilized in most diagnoses (for example: Smith, Glass, & Miller 1980). Being diagnosed also usually means being prescribed with medication. This, while not helpful for everyone, has been shown to significantly improve the quality of life for many (Davis 1975, Clomipramine Collaborative Study Group 1991). Labels, while they can be stigmatizing, can also lead those who bear them down the road to proper treatment and (hopefully) recovery. If the label of mental illness did not exist, then treatment for it would never have existed either. If one believes that being mentally ill is more than just believing one should fulfill a set of diagnostic criteria (as Scheff – see above – would argue), then one would probably also agree that those who are mentally ill need help. This could never happen if we did not have a way to categorize (and therefore label) them. Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. ...

Social construction of mental illness and the labeling process in mass media

The social construction of deviant behavior plays an important role in the labeling process that occurs in society. This process involves not only the labeling of criminally deviant behavior, which is behavior that does not fit socially constructed norms, but also labeling that which reflects stereotyped or stigmatized behavior of the mentally ill. Peggy Thoits discusses the process of labeling someone with a mental illness in her article, “Sociological Approaches to Mental Illness.” Working off of Thomas Scheff’s (1966) theory, Thoits claims that people who are labeled as mentally ill are stereotypically portrayed as unpredictable, dangerous, and unable to care for themselves. She also claims that “people who are labeled as deviant and treated as deviant become deviant,” (Thoits 1999: 134). This statement can be broken down into two processes, one that involves the effects of self-labeling and the other differential treatment from society based on the individual’s label. Therefore, if society sees mentally ill individuals as unpredictable, dangerous and reliant on others, then a person who may not actually be mentally ill but has been labeled as such, could become mentally ill. Deviant redirects here. ...

Commentary

Some offenses including the use of violence are universally recognized as wrong. Hence, labeling either habitual criminals or those who have caused serious harm as "criminals" is not constructive. Society may use more specific labels such as "murderer" or "rapist" or "child abuser" to demonstrate more clearly after the event the extent of its disapproval, but there is a slightly mechanical determinism in asserting that the application of a label will invariably modify the behavior of the one labeled. Further, if one of the functions of the penal system is to reduce recidivism, applying a long-term label may cause prejudice against the offender, resulting in the inability to maintain employment and social relationships. It has been suggested that Rapists be merged into this article or section. ... Child abuse is the physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment or neglect of children by parents, guardians, or others. ... This article is about recidivism in criminology and penology. ...

See also

• stigmatization
• Labelling
• Affect Control Theory

Social stigma refers to severe social disapproval of personal characteristics that is against cultural norms. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Affect control theory proposes that individuals maintain affective meanings through their actions and interpretations of events. ...

External links

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. George Herbert Mead. [1]

References

• Akers, Ronald L. (1997). "Labeling Theories (Chapter 6)", in Criminological Theories
• Braithwaite, John. (1989). Crime, Shame, and Reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Brand, R.C., & W.L. Claiborn (1976). Two studies of comparative stigma. Employer attitudes and practices toward rehabilitated convicts, mental and tuberculosis patients. Community Mental Health J. 12: 168-175.
• Clomipramine Collaborative Study Group (1991). Clomipramine in the treatment of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder. Arch. General Psychiatry 48: 730-8.
• Davis, J.M. (1975). Overview: Maintenance therapy in psychiatry: I. Schizophrenia. Amer. J. Psychiatry 132: 1237-45.
• Grattet, Ryken; Jenness, Valerie & Curry, Theodore. (1998). "The Homogenization and Differentiation of Hate Crime Law in the United States, 1978-1995: Innovation and Diffusion in the Criminalization of Bigotry", American Sociological Review, 63:286-307.
• Link, Bruce G. and Jo C. Phelan. 1999. “The Labeling Theory of Mental Disorder (II): The Consequences of Labeling.” Pp. 361-376 in A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health, edited by Allan V. Horwitz and Teresa L. Scheid. NY, NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Mead, George Herbert. (1934) Mind, Self, and Society, ed. C.W. Morris. Chicago: University of Chicago.
• Page, S. (1977). Effects of the mental illness label in attempts to obtain accommodation. Canadian J. Behavioral Science 9: 85-90.
• Smith, M.L., G. Glass, & T. Miller (1980). The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Phelan, Jo C. and Bruce G. Link. 1999. “Social Contingencies in Labeling Theory.” Pp. 139-149 in A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health, edited by Allan V. Horwitz and Teresa L. Scheid. NY, NY: Cambridge University Press.