Browsing by Subject "Stigma"
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Item Casual Encounters: Constructing Sexual Deviance on Craigslist.org(2017-05) Reynolds, ChelseaDespite the prevalence of dating websites and hookup applications, mass communication scholars have largely ignored news coverage of sex in the digital age. Research about online sexuality has built on early theories of cyber identity, in which the Internet was conceptualized as a great emancipator. Online, it was argued, people could explore “disembodied” sexualities with little interference from offline reality. This dissertation builds a research line that investigates journalistic discourse about online sexuality using more than a decade of coverage of Craigslist sex forums as a case study. It also examines user activity on Craigslist sex forums, testing dominant theories of online identity. For journalists, Internet-mediated sexuality represents a compound moral threat. Since 2003, national U.S. newspapers have consistently identified the classified ads website Craigslist as a hotbed for sexual deviants — people whose sexual interests mainstream culture deems immoral or even illegal. Newspaper journalists call on police and government sources to frame Craigslist users as prostitutes, violent criminals, and cheating politicians. By relying on elite sources, news media surveil social deviance for the public. This is an outcome of normative reporting practices. Representational scholars have argued that media made by marginalized groups will provide more nuanced narratives than the mainstream press. But in stories about Craigslist sex forums, alternative media reproduce stigma about online sexuality. Popular LGBTQ and feminist online magazines describe Craigslist sex forums as catalysts for illegal and immoral activity. They sometimes privilege sex workers’ voices and cover the experiences of sexual minorities, but they contribute to the same deviance-defining discourse about Craigslist sex forums as does the mainstream press. Media across the ideological spectrum police social deviance and reinforce cultural norms — online and off. Mass media surveillance of online sexuality encourages people to surveil their own behavior online. Ads on Craigslist sex forums reflect dominant cultural norms about sex despite posters’ attempts to explore their “unusual” fantasies. The Craigslist Casual Encounters forum provides a productive outlet for people to fantasize about kink, non-monogamy, race, and sexuality. But it also reflects the politics of its white male user base. Sexism, homophobia, and gendered logics saturate the forums. Offline stigmas about sexuality bleed into online sexual expression. This dissertation theorizes the role of normalizing judgment in determining media representations of online sexuality. It offers perspectives from journalism sociology and cultural studies to help explain why media paint Craigslist sex forums as spaces that foster illegal and immoral sex. The dissertation concludes that online sexuality must be added to definitions of deviance in news. It problematizes theories of representations of sexuality by alternative media, and it demonstrates that online sexuality is deeply intertwined with offline identity.Item Do Explanations Matter? The Hiring of Ex-offenders(2024-06-19) Manning, Josieann JMany employers are disinclined to hire applicants who have committed a crime due to the belief that they will commit another offense in the future. In order to screen out those with prior offenses, employers may use criminal background checks. After such background checks are conducted, applicants may be given the opportunity to explain the circumstances behind their criminal offenses to their employer, should they have one. However, little is known about how such explanations affect how the applicant is evaluated by the employer. This study aimed to assess whether the type of explanation offered by an ex-offender with a felony conviction will increase their likelihood of being hired by the organization. A total of 413 participants were recruited to participate in this study. Results revealed that the type of felon a person had (nonviolent versus violent) had no impact on their favorability rating by the participant. Furthermore, the type of explanation provided by the job applicant (none, self-explanation, court documentation, or both) also had no impact on the way that the participant perceived the ex-offender. Results of this study did reveal that the hiring decision-maker’s belief set did have an impact on how they perceived the job applicant. Participants who had an incremental theorist belief set (growth mindset) perceived the job applicant more favorably than participants with an entity theorist belief set (fixed mindset). These findings indicate that providing an explanation has no impact on whether the ex-offender may be hired by an organization.Item Examination of the Effectiveness of Mental Health First Aid Among the Public: A Meta-Analysis(2018-06) Maslowski, Amy KMental health conditions are prevalent and can significantly impact a person's functioning; however, it can be challenging for an untrained individual to know when or how to provide assistance to a person experiencing a mental health concern. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) was developed to provide people with training and guidelines to improve their mental health literacy, decrease stigma, and increase their confidence and willingness to offer aid to individuals experiencing a mental health disorder or crisis. Given recent initiatives to expand the implementation of MHFA programs and increased efforts to evaluate it with more rigorous designs, a comprehensive and systematic review of the evidence base is warranted. This study investigated and quantified, via meta-analytic methodology, MHFA outcomes (i.e., knowledge, attitude, behavior) for the training participant as well as both a quantitative and narrative review for the individual experiencing a mental health disorder or crisis. We conducted a comprehensive search for eligible studies that utilized either a control or comparison group. This resulted in 15 studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Small-to-moderate effect sizes were found for the primary outcomes for the trainees; however, preliminary evidence suggests effects for the recipients were more difficult to observe. Study quality had a significant moderating effect. Overall, MHFA appears to be an effective intervention for increasing knowledge about mental health, decreasing stigma and social distance, and increasing trainees' confidence in approaching and providing aid to an individual experiencing a mental health disorder or crisis. Considerably greater attention and effort in demonstrating effects on recipients is needed with future empirical investigations.Item Home birth in the United States and the Netherlands: understanding women's experiences of stigma, nature, and trauma(2013-12) Kulick, Rachael BethThis is an ethnographic study of contemporary home birth in the United States and the Netherlands. Data include (1) fieldnotes collected at prenatal appointments, births, postpartum visits, and professional meetings, (2) transcripts from pre- and post-birth interviews with pregnant women as well as interviews with midwives, and (3) textual materials including statements by medical and midwifery associations and books by leaders of the natural birth movement. Analysis reveals three key components of women's experience: stigma, natural birth, and trauma. Home birth in the U.S. is seen as risky behavior and women who plan such births are labeled risk mothers. Women cope with this stigma by employing isolation and secrecy, attempting an education campaign, or seeking comfort in a family tradition of alternative approaches to health. In the Netherlands, home birth is part of the mainstream health care system. In the absence of stigma, structures for collaboration between midwives and physicians facilitate relatively smooth interactions. An international discourse of natural birth informs a script for how to accomplish home birth in the U.S. This script emphasizes a warm, dark, and quiet environment, continuous labor support, and the achievement of an altered state of consciousness. A different script operates in the Netherlands - one that focuses on home birth as ordinary (as opposed to extraordinary) and is based on a tradition of independent midwifery, insurance industry support, and professional postpartum home care. Home-to-hospital transport is a traumatic experience in the U.S. - not so much because of the obstetric complications that necessitate the transfer as because of the disruption of beliefs and values that occurs when women move from the midwifery to the biomedical model of care. In the Netherlands, non-Dutch women with a medicalized view of birth experience a similar rupture between their worldview and a system that promotes unmedicated, low-intervention birth.Item Research Study of the Lived Experience of Alopecia Areata for Women During Early Adulthood.(2017-06) Bemmels, HeatherObjectives: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune condition that causes baldness in men and women; however, it may be especially distressing for women given social standards and expectations for beauty. This sporadic condition can present with various extents of hair loss that unexpectedly relapse or remit across time. The present phenomenological study aimed to describe the lived experiences of early adult women with AA who developed it in pre-adolescence or adolescence, to provide greater understanding of the experience of having AA over time. Method: The present study is guided by phenomenological methods, including interpretive phenomenological analysis. Following in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six female participants ages 27-36 with current, active AA, who developed their AA between ages 10-16, data were transcribed and analyzed at an individual and general (i.e., cross case) level for themes. Results: Responses to initial awareness of AA or increasing hair loss were not uniform, with participants’ psychological experiences ranging from not being bothered to life-altering and devastating. Physical sensations and visual reminders of increased hair loss can pull participants out of their everyday experiences, with possible helplessness regarding inability to stop the loss. Losing hair was sometimes experienced as a deep emotional loss, and was sometimes so devastating that years felt “dark” or “lost.” Participants encountered uncertainty regarding when their hair might fall out, as well as unpredictability with others’ reactions. Participants often experienced normality with friends and family, but occasional rejection and derision from others led to certain spaces or situations feeling unsafe for revealing AA. Participants often concealed their AA with various approaches, including wigs or hair pins, which might lead to self-consciousness about the AA or wig being discovered. At some point, these routines become “automatic.” Disclosing about AA to others increased vulnerability and openness, which might have negative (e.g., fear of negative reactions) and positive (e.g., deeper relationships) implications. The threat of AA being incidentally discovered can be distressing even after decades of having AA, but for some, making an intentional choice to reveal AA (e.g., openly telling others, not wearing a wig) led to freedom and comfort with the tradeoff of possible increased attention through stares or questions. Discussion: AA impacts individuals’ lives in a variety of ways, and the impact can differ across time, situations, and relationships. AA can produce a great deal of distress that persists after more than a decade of living with it. For others, AA is less distressing. Psychologists and other providers might best serve individuals with AA by better assessing their individual experiences of the condition. Future research might investigate the process of how some individuals with AA come to greater acceptance of or appreciation for their AA.Item A Word, a Shadow, a Breath: A Phenomenological Investigation of Therapists' Perceptions of the Stigma Experienced by Women Residing in Ireland Who Have Had Abortions(2018-08) Martyr, MeredithObjectives: Abortion stigma is a phenomenon arising from beliefs that abortion is morally wrong and/or socially unacceptable. Abortion stigma varies in how it is created, supported, perpetrated, and experienced depending various cultural factors. The present study strived to describe the lived experience of Irish women who experience stigma post-abortion from accounts by their psychotherapists. The focus was on how stigma is experienced by these women and the variety of systems that potentially influence that experience. Method: The present study was guided by hermeneutic phenomenological methods, including thematic phenomenological analysis. Nine Irish psychotherapists (eight female, one male) who were active practitioners and members of an accrediting Irish psychotherapy agency participated in face-to-face, in depth semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed at an individual and general level. Results: Responses yielded both unique and similar experiences of psychotherapists and their female clients. Four themes emerged from the data analysis process: Secrecy; Cultural Barriers: Breathing in Irish Culture and Irish Identity; Systems Working against Women (this theme contained three subthemes: Political/Governmental, Religious, and Interlinkage of religion and politics); and Personal is Professional. The themes and sub-themes were present in every participant’s narrative. Discussion: Women in Ireland uniquely experience abortion stigma due to a variety of factors that lead to internalized stigma. Abortion stigma can cause them to experience grief, guilt, and sadness in isolation and secrecy. Mental health professionals might best serve Irish women who are experiencing abortion stigma by increasing their awareness of its precipitating factors, including the unique effects growing up an in Irish culture can have on these women and on the practitioner’s ability to fully serve this population. Future researchers might directly investigate Irish women’s experiences of abortion stigma as well as the experiences of mental health professionals who serve them.