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Deviant Identities

D‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‍iscussion brings the current and previous lesson into conversation with each other and asks: Is it better to avoid or embrace deviant identities? While answering this main question, it may help to address some of the following questions:

 • Can you think of a specific example that might change your general answer?

 • Does your answer change for discreditable vs. discredited individuals?

• Does the type of deviance (characteristic, belief, behavior) matter?

• Does the specific deviant identity (e.g., immigrant, furry, ex-con) matter?

• What stigma management technique do you think is most effective?

• How might stigma management change depending on social context?

 • What role do individual labels and existing deviant subcultures play in determining whether to avoid or embrace a deviant identity?

 •For someone who grows up in a deviant subculture, to what extent is their identification (by others, by themselves) with that subculture voluntary vs. mandatory?

• What are potential costs and benefits of avoiding/embracing deviant identities? • Do you or anyone you know have personal experience avoiding/embracing a deviant identity?

 • What strategy or strategies were employed, and was the result positive, negative, or what?

• Post should conclude with a‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‍ question. (1) source = https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-the-self/200809/the-path-unconditional-self-acceptance ***(2) source can be any journal article, and not peer reviewed. **Please use opinion base, I will end up using my opinion based on your opinion. lessons go on about differentiation, secondary deviance, deviant subcultures, deviant careers. Summary below. In spite of the accompanying stigma, many people choose to embrace their deviant identities. Through differentiation, this can take the form of framing the stigma as an obstacle or as a part of a person’s authentic self. The effect of stigma on embracing a deviant identity is clear as labeled individuals may choose to accept those labels and engage in secondary deviance. Rather than accept a deviant label and identity, an individual immersed in a deviant subculture with its own norms may not recognize themselves as deviant. Interestingly, though, it seems that most deviance reduces as people age, so it is unclear to what extent people with deviant identities embrace those identities for the long term. Readings for this lesson offer examples of the various ways people embrace deviant identities. 

Discussion draws on the current and previous lesson by asking whether it is better to avoid or ‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‍embrace deviant identities.

Expert Solution

One's perspective and interpretation of oneself as abnormal or behaving outside the bounds of acceptable behavior is correlated to deviant identities. A person who has internalized stigmatization from others as part of their identity is said to have a deviant identity. People start to perceive themselves as outsiders, a person to whom they don't belong or act in a way that is considered improper by established societal standards. As such, those that engage in these behaviors may have a propensity for anti-social conduct, which is frequently connected to criminal activity, both instancing a relation of their psychological and physiological relation to their behavior. While both physical and mental perspectives have merit, they are both constrained in how they explain deviation since they only see it as an issue of abnormality and fail to address the impacts and whether embracing or rejecting deviant identities is preferable.

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