Labeling Theory

One of the goals of this blog & website is to look at stigma from a sociological perspective. Much of the current information out there is a combination of psychological and sociological perspectives; they’re merged together in a field called social psychology, which studies how people’s thoughts and feelings are influenced by groups.

I think, however, there is a certain amount of importance in going back and studying the good old fashioned sociology of deviance and stigma. Ironically enough, I think this can sometimes lead us to a better understanding of the patients themselves as well of the situation. It was, after all, a sociologist who coined the term “stigma.”

That being said, one of the first things I want to talk about is labeling.

Okay, so what's labeling? And what's deviance?

Deviance is behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.

Labeling, or Labeling theory is an approach to deviance that attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants while others engaged in the same behavior are not.

To put it a lot more simply, we all know what normal is. We have ideas about what to expect from any given situation, and when people behave in ways we don't expect them to - they're weird. They're deviants. Labels are just the names we give them - like criminal or crazy person. Sociologists, however, think labels go a lot farther; they think the labels can actually help determine what happens to a person. Just think of a kid who's told he's going to be no-good his entire life - when he winds up in the juvenile justice system at age 12, is it him, or is it the label of "bad kid?"

All of this labeling theory certainly applies to mental illness. The most drastic of these approaches asserts that the label actually causes the illness; you don't have bipolar disorder or act that way until the doctor tells you you do. Now, that's pretty patently untrue, but it's not terribly hard to see if you are bipolar or know someone who is that the way a bipolar interfaces with their disorder changes upon being diagnosed. That's a product of the label.

And that's not the only product of the label. Here we come back to stigma. Now, obviously, stigma does not always come from labeling. Labels are just words, and people stigmatize mentally ill behavior as well. But enough stigma comes from labels that I think it is important to pay attention to it. This is because the label causes some of the most harm for the bipolar person him or herself. Studies have shown that long after a major episode or a hospitalization, long after they have resumed acting "normally," most mentally ill patients believe that they will still be socially rejected (Link, 1987: 1473). Obviously, stigma here has nothing to do with behavior.

I also want to talk about before I close is the idea of self-labeling. For that, we need to take a break and have another mini-sociology lesson. This is based on the idea of the interalization of norms.

Norms are established standards of behavior maintained by society.

So basically all these normal things that we all know are normal are called "norms". And they're not just floating around outside of us; we know what they are. If you're by yourself, you still understand if what you're doing is normal or not. That's because you've internalized these behavioral norms. Now consider the idea of emotional norms. We all know what's "normal" to feel. You can see it in the way we talk: "You have a right to be angry," "It's time to stop grieving," "Aren't you excited," "You should be happy." All of these things show us that there are right ways and wrong ways to feel in any given situation (Thoits, 1985: 224). The thing about emotions, though, that makes them different than other types of normative behaviors, is that they can't be really seen. The only person who knows if they are deviating from emotional norms is the deviant him or herself. Now take someone who is bipolar, someone whose emotions can go way outside of these "emotional norms." While their behavior may not constantly be norm-breaking; their emotions might be, and they know it. They internalize it.

And so they self-label. Again and again.

So to conclude I want to propose that one solution to stigma here is, in fact, emotional validation of the mentally ill themselves. Emotional validation and acceptance, quite simply, makes people feel happier. They feel less pressured to change the essence of who they are (Thoits, 1985: 238). Who knows? If you emotionally validate those bipolars, perhaps stigma won't even matter any more.

References

Link, Bruce G., Francis T. Cullen, James Frank and John F. Wozniak. “The Social Rejection of Former Mental Patients: Understanding Why Labels Matter.” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 92, No. 6 (May, 1987), pp. 1461-1500.

Schaefer, Richard. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. McGraw-Hill, 2006. Thoits, Peggy. “Self-Labeling Processes in Mental Illness: The Role of Emotional Deviance.” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Sep., 1985), pp. 221-249.

The Discourse of Abnormal Behavior