Labeling Theory: Social Constructionism, Social Stigma, Deinstitutionalisation, George Herbert Mead, Howard S. Becker, Labelling

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 31. Chapters: Deinstitutionalisation, Frank Tannenbaum, George Herbert Mead, Howard S. Becker, Labelling, Social stigma, Stereotype, Stereotype content model. Excerpt: A stereotype is a thought that may be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately reflect reality. However, this is only a fundamental psychological definition of a stereotype. Within and across different psychology disciplines, there are different concepts and theories of stereotyping that provide their own expanded definition. Some of these definitions share commonalities, though each one may also harbor unique aspects that may complement or contradict the others. The term stereotype derives from the Greek words (stereos), "firm, solid" and (typos), "impression," hence "solid impression." The term comes from the printing trade and was first adopted in 1798 by Firmin Didot to describe a printing plate that duplicated any typography. The duplicate printing plate, or the stereotype, is used for printing instead of the original. The first reference to "stereotype" in its modern use in English, outside of printing, was in 1850, in a noun, meaning "image perpetuated without change." But it was not until 1922 that "stereotype" was first used in the modern psychological sense by American journalist Walter Lippmann in his work Public Opinion. Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination are understood as related but different concepts. Stereotypes are regarded as the most cognitive component, prejudice as the affective and discrimination as the behavioral component of prejudicial reactions. In this tripartite view of intergroup attitudes, stereotypes reflect expectations and beliefs about the characteristics of members of groups perceived as different from one's own, prejudice represents the emotional response, and discrimination refers to actions. Although related, the three concepts can exist independently of each other. According to Daniel Katz and Kenneth Braly, stereotyping leads to racial prejudice when people emotionally react to the name of a group, ascribe characteristics to memb"