Overview

My research examines key theoretical questions at the intersection of medical sociology, inequality, and social psychology. I focus on understanding the factors that shape two related forms of inequality: stigma, a driver of social exclusion, and status, the extent to which one is perceived as respected and competent. In my research, I target a number of substantive areas in which stigma and status processes are present (e.g., health, race, gender, and sexuality). This approach allows me to increase generalizability of these sociological phenomena, and also to understand what is different regarding content, consequences, management, and foundations of discrimination. 

​Because stigma and status are enacted and reproduced in social interactions, I focus on both micro-level processes, such as labeling, and macro-level structures, such as social norms. Additionally, I examine both those who enact stigma and those who are stigmatized. My theoretical interests require different methodological approaches including experiments (laboratory and survey-based), in-depth qualitative interviews, and nationally representative survey data.

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Dissertation

My dissertation examines how mental illness labels have the potential to both increase and decrease stigma (the social distance desired from another person), and status (perceptions of competence and social standing). In doing so, I apply the macro-sociological concept of medicalization to micro-level interactions. On a macro-level, medicalization describes the process by which deviant behavior comes to be understood and treated as a medical problem, thereby changing understandings of such behavior from “bad” to “sick.” On a micro-level, an individual’s deviant behavior is also labeled as a mental illness. For example, a man talking to himself enthusiastically may be labeled as having schizophrenia; however, he might also be labeled as drunk or simply strange. I examine how these different labels, and the source of these labels, affect how an individual is treated by others.

While mental illness labels certainly carry stigma, they may also reduce perceptions of individuals as being intentionally "bad" and provide a reason for deviant behavior. However, if labels reduce perceptions of an individual's control over his/her behavior, they may also decrease perceived competence and social status. In brief, when used to explain ambiguously deviant behavior, mental illness labels have the potential to increase or decrease both stigma and status. ​Using a series of survey-experiments conducted on a national sample of adults in the United States, my dissertation uncovers how medical understandings of deviant behavior affect stigma and status. Additionally, I examine how the source of a mental illness label (e.g., physician vs. lay person) may change these understandings. This research is funded by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant and the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences. ​