ABSTRACT
Social stigma is a pervasive aspect of social existence. Goffman (1963) suggested that there are three major types of stigmatizing conditions: (a) tribal stigmas, such as membership in disadvantaged or despised racial, ethnic, or religious groups, (b) abominations of the body, including physical handicaps and disfiguring conditions, and (c) blemishes of individual character, such as substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and homosexuality. As Goffman's analysis suggests, a wide variety of conditions are considered stigmatizing; people with those stigmas are the targets of negative stereotypes, are generally devalued in the larger society, and receive disproportionately negative interpersonal and economic outcomes (Crocker & Major, 1989). In Goffman's (1963) terms, the stigmatized have a spoiled identity in the eyes of the nonstigmatized.
