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LABELING
1. "Labeling" means classifying a person into a
category that has a special
status in society. Being called "retarded" or "mentally ill"
changes the
way other people respond to the person who has been labeled. This
change may reduce the opportunities the person has to get a job or to be
well-educated or to find a mate. Often the talents or other good qualities
that the person has become invisible to other people, because the image
of the category is so strong.
2. Often it is only by being officially labeled that our clients can get
benefits
that they need, such as special education, disability benefits, drug
treatment or psychiatric treatment. The irony for us as Human Services
workers is that we may work toward getting our clients classified so that
they can get services or benefits, while being aware that by doing so, we
may be changing their lives forever in a negative way.
3. Often the labeled person has very mixed feelings about his or her category.
The person may find that having the label requires her or him to spend a
great
deal of time with other people who have been assigned to the same category.
The person, even though she or he has the same problem, may
share the same
negative feelings that society at large has toward people who have that problem.
4. Studies have shown that professionals are not always exact in labeling
their clients. -For example, David Rosenhan introduced some of his students
into
psychiatric hospitals as mental patients. The staff did not recognize them
as sane, even though other patients did. Then he told the staff of a hospital
that he would send some false patients, but he never did. In this phase of the
study, various staff members believed that some of the real patients were only
pretending to be mentally ill. -Robert Rosenthal demonstrated that teachers got
better school
performance from school children whom Rosenthal had identified as
"achievers." In fact, the "achievers" had been chosen at random, and had no more
or
or less talent than any other children. This also showed that labeling people
positively might have positive results.
5. People from different cultures and people who are poor are more likely to
be labeled negatively than others. That is partly because of prejudice and
discrimination, and partly because a person from another culture may no
know the behavioral and educational cues that would keep her or him from
being labeled.
6. Social expectations are powerful in shaping people's behavior. If someone
is expected to behave in a certain way, the person often does it. Social
expectations are shaped by labels that have been applied to people. Thus
labels are self-reinforcing, or to use a phrase invented by Robert Merton,
they become a "self-fulfilling prophecy."
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