Diagnosing Deviance: Social Stigma and Mental Health Assessment
Like it or not, we exist in a society that categorizes people based on various attributes: their backgrounds, appearances, behaviors, and so on. Some of the categories we understand as 'normal'; others, though, we understand as different or “deviant.”
When others categorize us or any of our attributes as different or deviant, we may feel stigmatized or discredited. But what if feeling stigmatized points to something important about our social world? How about if stigmatization is concretized into formal social rules? What happens if we turn to a specific setting — for example, a mental health clinic. How do psychologists, social workers, and counselors come to a conclusion about what’s ‘wrong’ with someone? What are the implications of that? And how do those conclusions reflect deeper rules embedded in our social world about what constitutes ‘normal’ behavior, and what’s ‘deviant’?
Drawing on theories from sociology and psychology, this program will study a series of questions about social stigma and trace how social stigma is made manifest in the practice of assessment in helping relationships. Drawing on the work of sociologists including Erving Goffman, Howard Becker, Leon Anderson, and others, we’ll explore questions including, ‘why are some personal attributes stigmatized?’ ‘What types of reactions do certain stigma elicit from others?’ ‘Under what circumstances do individuals conceal stigmatized attributes?’ ‘When do people who experience stigma resist, and what is the role of personal power in this resistance?’ We’ll also dive into the biopsychosocial assessment that forms the foundation of many helping processes in fields like psychology and social work. We’ll explore what components make up these assessments and how they function to distinguish between what is ‘clinically significant’ or deviant, and what is normal. Drawing on perspectives that include critical and feminist psychology, Mad studies, critical disability studies, and crip theory, we’ll problematize these assessments and raise questions about whether or not they can accurately determine what constitutes ‘illness,’ ‘abnormality,’ or ‘deviance.’
Learning Goals:
1. Students will learn about many aspects of stigma and how persons adapt to them.
2. Students will learn about the theoretical foundations underpinning and components of biopsychosocial assessments, and will understand how to complete them.
3. Students will learn to read, critically evaluate, and annotate published research across a number of disciplines.
4. Students will develop skills in applying knowledge about social stigma and its impact on the lives of individuals in our communities and the larger society.
5. Students will demonstrate skills in applying theory to practice by articulating the connections between Goffman's articulation of social stigma and the processes undertaken during the assessment process in helping professions such as social work, counseling, and psychology.
Students can expect to spend four hours a week engaging in asynchronous class activities such as participating in online discussions, meeting with faculty individually, and related work.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
4-Sociology
4-Psychology/Health
Registration
Course will be taught in-person, on Olympia campus with periodic hybrid work performed remotely