A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO SOCIAL AND INDIVIDUAL STIGMA.

Although Goffman's influential treatment of stigma has prompted researchers to generalize from studies of reactions to certain negatively evaluated characteristics (e.g., physical handicaps) to others (e.g., sex), it is argued that such generalizations ignore an important dimension of difference. Social stigma involves membership in a devalued group and may correspond to what is generally understood as "minority status" in our society; individual stigma refers to possession of a single discrediting attribute. Both social and individual stigmata manipulations were introduced into complex and realistic personal descriptions of applicants for jobs involving authority and/or personal contact. Ss were 40 students at an Ivy League university, 16 of whom were female. The hypothesis that social stigma would be a bar to positions of status and authority while individual stigma would restrict access to positions involving interpersonal contact was only partially supported, but the cognitive processes explored appear to be both subtle and realistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]