This dissertation examines the phenomenon of stigma by association between firms in the context of corporate accounting scandals. I draw from the social psychology literature to develop a theoretical framework that supports the notion of director interlocks as a channel in which associated firms may experience stigma. I argue that allegations of corporate accounting scandal generate attributional search by investors to determine the cause(s) of the alleged scandal. Attribution theory suggests that investors are likely to attribute responsibility to corporate boards for failing to detect and prevent these scandals. Investors’ perceptions of incompetent and/or unwilling directors in firms accused of accounting scandals may then spill over to directorship positions in associated firms, resulting in the stigmatization of these associated firms. The results strongly support the above arguments. I further adopted an information-based approach to argue that firms associated with stigmatized firms will experience different amounts of stigma, and some firms may experience no stigma at all. I applied social inference theories and agency theory to develop four categories of variables that may influence the amount of stigma experienced by associated firms. The results of the dissertation present strong evidence in support of most of the hypotheses. The characteristics of the interlocking director, the characteristics of the board, the strength of the director interlock, and the quality of corporate governance in an associated firm appear to influence the amount of stigma experienced by the associated firm. This dissertation highlights the possible (1) negative consequences of director interlocks, (2) understatement of the social costs of corporate accounting scandals, and (3) need for response strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of stigma by association.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde einem Phänomen nachgegangen, das bislang nur wenig wissenschaftliche Beachtung erfahren hat: der Stigmatisierung von leistungsstarken SchülerInnen als Streber. Da sich bislang kaum Forschung mit der Streber-Etikettierung beschäftigt hat, wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit versucht, anhand quantitativer Studien ein umfassendes Bild von der Etikettierung, ihrer Prozesse und ihrer Konsequenzen zu erfassen. In diesem Rahmen wurde folgenden Fragen nachgegangen: 1) Welche individuellen Faktoren sagen die Etikettierung als Streber und die Stigmatisierung anderer SchülerInnen als Streber vorher? 2) Welche Prozesse liegen der Stigmatisierung als Streber zugrunde? 3) Mit welchen Konsequenzen geht die Stigmatisierung einher? 4) Welche Faktoren tragen zur sozialen Akzeptanz von SchülerInnen mit herausragenden schulischen Leistungen bei? Die vorliegenden Befunde deuten darauf hin, dass es sich dabei um ein relevantes Phänomen handelt, welches mit individuellen Faktoren nebst schulischen Leistungen verbunden ist, durch den Klassenkontext determiniert wird und zudem mit aversiven Konsequenzen für die Betroffenen einhergeht. Neben dieser eher negativen Konnotation zeigen die Befunde aber auch auf, dass es Möglichkeiten zum Umgang und zur Lösung gibt. Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit konnte ein wichtiger Schritt zur Schließung einer Forschungslücke getan werden. Nichtsdestoweniger zeigen die Befunde auch, dass für eine allumfassende Erklärung des Phänomens Streber weitere Forschung dringend benötigt wird.

Although  “naming and shaming” paedophiles are growing in Sweden, professionals working with the rehabilitation and treatment of paedophiles describe that the naming and shaming might not prevent child sex abuse. On the opposite naming and shaming alienates the perpetrator from any ordinary life. The alienation could lead them to only having other paedophiles as friends. Previous studies show that professionals are often distancing themselves from working with paedophiles, even if there is competence. Studies also show that paedophiles are seldom seeking help due to of fear of stigmatization. The aim of this study was to describe social workers perception of “paedophiles” and to find out the action contingency among social workers regarding clients that express such feelings. A qualitative method with semi-structured interviews was used. Seven social workers and one psychologist were interviewed. Previous research has been confirmed as many professionals actively choose not to work with perpetrators even though they believe the perpetrators deserve adequate help. The data was analysed referring to Hasenfelds theory of human service organizations and the concept of cognitive dissonance. Organizations that are not specifically built to treat perpetrators and paedophiles are apparently not prepared to help them.

Background: HIV is a worldwide spread disease with many deaths. People with the disease have previously been met with attitudes, stigma and discrimination in various contexts. A caring relationship should be built on empathy, respect and communication, where the patient is not seen as their illness, but as a person. Today, there are laws that are there to protect the patient, however, there is a lack of knowledge about what is current. Health care workers knowledge in the 2000s has improved, but there is still a lack of knowledge. Aim: To illustrate how patients with HIV experience health care. Method: The literature review was conducted with twelve scientific articles of which two articles were quantitative and the other qualitative. Results: The results revealed three main themes; Different expressions of fear, Perceived negative attitudes and stigmatization, as well as The wish to be lovingly treated in health care. The first main theme showed that the fear of health professionals could influence patients' experience and outreach of health care and how the fear turned into concrete actions. Under the second main theme, negative attitudes and stigmatization was described and how the HIV- positive patients perceived this negative behavior. In the third main theme emerged how HIV patients wished that the care was. Discussions: The main topics were health care workers discriminatory behavior and how it could be linked to their fears and ignorance. It is discussed about human behavior and what it might do. The fear could lead to negative consequences for patients with HIV when the nurse's ethical code and guidelines were not followed. How to change negative attitudes and stigma were discussed. The patients' desire for a changed attitude is discussed and what health professionals can do to change that. / Bakgrund: HIV är en globalt spridd sjukdom med många dödsfall. Personer med sjukdomen har tidigare mötts med negativa attityder, stigmatisering och diskriminering i olika sammanhang. En vårdrelation bör bygga på empati, respekt och kommunikation, där patienten inte ses som sin sjukdom utan som en person. Idag finns lagar som är till för att skydda patienter med HIV från diskriminering, dock finns det bristande kunskap kring vad som är gällande. Vårdpersonalens kunskapsläge under 2000-talet har förbättrats, men det finns fortfarande en kunskapsbrist. Syfte: Att belysa hur patienter med HIV upplever vården. Metod: Litteraturöversikten genomfördes med tolv vetenskapliga artiklar varav två artiklar var kvantitativa och de övriga kvalitativa. Resultat: I resultatet framkom tre huvudteman; Olika uttryck av rädsla, Upplevda negativa attityder och stigmatisering samt Önskan om att bli kärleksfullt bemött i vården. Under första huvudtemat redovisades hur rädsla från vårdpersonal kunde påverka patienternas upplevelse och uppsökande av vård samt hur rädslan visade sig i konkreta handlingar. Under andra huvudtemat negativa attityder och stigmatisering beskrevs hur HIV-positiva patienter uppfattade detta negativa beteende. I det tredje huvudtemat framkom hur patienter med HIV önskade att vården var. Diskussion: I diskussionen behandlades vårdpersonalens diskriminerande agerande och hur det kunde vara kopplat till deras rädslor och okunskap. Det diskuteras över människans handlande och vad det kan bero på. Rädslan kunde leda till negativa konsekvenser för patienter med HIV när sjuksköterskans etiska kod och riktlinjer inte följdes. Hur man kan förändra negativa attityder och stigmatisering diskuteras. Patienternas önskan om ett förändrat bemötande diskuteras och vad vårdpersonalen kan göra för att förändra detta.

In order to examine the phenomenon of fat messages presented through visual media, a content analysis was used to quantify and categorize fat-specific commentary. Fat commentary vignettes were identified using a targeted sampling procedure, and 135 scenes were excised from movies and TV shows. The material was coded by trained raters. Reliability indices were uniformly high for the seven categories (% agreement ranged from .90-.98; kappas ranged from .66-.94). Results indicated that fat commentary and fat humor is often verbal, directed toward another person, and is often presented directly in the presence of the overweight target. Results also indicated that male characters are three times more likely to engage in fat commentary or fat humor than female characters. These findings provide the first information regarding the specific gender, age, and types of fat commentary that occur frequently in movies and TV shows. The stimuli should prove useful in future research examining the role of individual difference factors (e.g., BMI) in the reaction to viewing such vignettes.

Bakgrund: Över hela världen lever människor med HIV, en kronisk infektion som påverkar individens immunförsvar. Dessa människor har varit en utsatt grupp för diskriminering av samhället under flera år. Det vilar ett etiskt ansvar hos sjuksköterskan att bemöta och vårda människor på lika villkor samt med respekt för den personliga integriteten. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien var att beskriva hur människor som lever med HIV upplever möten med vårdpersonal. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en allmän litteraturöversikt baserad på åtta kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: I resultatet framkom fyra huvudkategorier: Att bli dömd och diskriminerad, Känslan av att vara smittsam, Känna tillit eller misstro samt Att bli respekterad. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskan har möjligheter i mötet med människor som lever med HIV, att verka för att individens känslor av utanförskap samt inskränkande av den personliga integriteten reduceras. Då patientens unika erfarenheter och behov tas tillvara i mötet beskriver människor med HIV upplevelser av att bli sedd för den person de är. Vilket är av värde i omvårdnaden, då målet för sjuksköterskan är att stärka patientens hälsoprocesser och verka för en individanpassad vård. / Background: People are living with HIV all over the world, a chronic infection that affects the individual's immune system. These people have been a vulnerable group, discriminated by society for several years. There is an ethical responsibility of the nurse to respond to and nurture people on equal terms and with respect for the personal integrity. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe how people living with HIV experience the encounter with healthcare professionals. Method: The study was conducted as a general literature review based on eight qualitative scientific articles. Results: The results revealed four main categories Being judged and discriminated, Feelings of being contagious, An emotion of trust or distrust and Being respected. Conclusion: The nurse has opportunities in the meetings with people living with HIV, to ensure that the individuals’ feelings of alienation and restrictive of personal privacy are reduced. When the patients’ unique experiences and needs are utilized in the meeting, people with HIV describes that they are being seen for who they are. Which is in the value of nursing care where the aim of the nurse is to strengthen the patients’ health processes and promote individual care.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Diagnosis with HIV disease is associated with a negative life event which impacts on health, longevity, reproduction and sexuality. Given the impact of disease stigma on prevailing constructions of masculinity and femininity, gender expectations are found to play an increasingly important role in prevention. In contexts in which increasingly more young people are living with HIV there is a need for appropriate sex-education, support for dealing with sexuality and self-identity with HIV. This calls for a prevention approach that gives a voice to those who have previously been marginalised and necessitates a move away from prevention approaches that are didactic and use top-down shifts in policy and regulation as a means of encouraging risk reduction. This study explores DramAidE’s Health Promotion project which locates young people who live openly with HIV in the centre of an HIV/AIDS mitigation project so that they can provide leadership and engage campus communities in HIV/AIDS related activities and events. Unlike most higher education stigma reduction efforts which draw on a model of "liberal enlightenment" in which communications experts design projects with the intention of correcting inappropriate thoughts and actions, this project avoids, what Paulo Freire (1972a) calls a ‘banking’ approach to health (Maluwa, Aggleton, and Parker, 2002). Participatory action research is associated with democratic struggles and is used in this dissertation to encourage resistance to stigmatising attitudes which are encoded within current prevention approaches. The findings suggest that peers exposed to the Health Promotion project engage with gender and prevention issues in a highly critical way. Peers living and affected by HIV have developed a context specific set of norms which encourage testing. An innovative approach to prevention has been adopted in which peer leaders living with HIV provide an alternative model of care and support which is community supported. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This essay intervenes in the politics of urban segregation in Stockholm. The main aim of the essay is to analyze and describe how advanced marginality and territorial stigmatization are expressed in the lived experiences of four unemployed youths, that have participated in a labor market training program located in the “social vulnerable” area Rågsved. With a theoretical framework based in Henri Lefebvre’s production of social space the empirical findings are interpreted in regard to how the youths produce social space in dialectical interplay with urban politics, advanced marginality, territorial stigmatization, and their local neighborhood. The empirical material in the study was collected through qualitative interviews with the youths. The method of interviewing, analyzing, and presenting the result is grounded in a phenomenological approach. The historical background for the essay is the politics of urban segregation that has emerged in the metropolitan areas of Sweden. The post-industrial society and advanced sectors in the economy are transforming the labor market, city landscape, and the requirements on workers. This deep transformation process has resulted in social exclusion and inequalities between different groups in the urban city. Unemployment and poverty has been concentrated to the urban periphery of the metropolitan city. The urban periphery is marginalized areas with high concentration of immigrant residents with post-colonial status. The Swedish Metropolitan Committee committed a proposal 1998 for a new urban politics in the beginning of the millennium, which main purpose was to intervene in the ongoing process of ethnic and socioeconomic segregation in the urban landscape. This political-institutional background, within the context of post-industrial society and neoliberal politics, situates the historical framework for the present study. The result in the study points out that the youths are in an insecure position in the contemporary labor market, and constantly reflect their ways of living through the dominated norms of active labor market policies. The youths participation in the labor market training program Rågsved Community Center are described as a positive experience, and they describe how they are fully recognized as individual subjects of the employees. Within the geography of urban segregation, the youths are constantly in a process of mental negotiating about how to determine the space of Rågsved. The space of the “social vulnerable” suburb Rågsved is produced by the youths in the conflict of territorial stigmatization and their feelings of belonging.  The main result from the study is that the youths lived experiences of participation in Rågsved Community Center reflects a political need for something different. They discredit the way that Arbetsförmedlingen approach them as unemployed and lack confidence in their methods. In the social space of Rågsved Community Center the youths are recognized as individuals and are also taking initiative to help their friends in Rågsved to find a way out of unemployment. These spatial practices in Rågsved produce a social space and constitute a local institution that could be an embryo for collective representation and organization in relation to urban segregation and youth unemployment in the urban periphery.

This study is constructed upon narratives of fourteen young women, who have been working in prostitution since they were street children in central Lima, and acknowledges their stigmatization in the Peruvian society, and how they challenge their socially constructed position. By combining narrative method with an intersectional analysis I have, through a multi-layered loupe, interpreted the young women’s interpretation of themselves and their social world. I will bring forward how these young women view their subordinate and stigmatized position through their narratives surrounding their bodies as shameful, culpable, sexual and fixed. This stigmatization is intersectional as it surrounds all parts of their lives and situatedness within the Peruvian society. This situatedness is complex, involving hierarchical structures that have been present in Peru since colonization and imperialism (cf. Wade 2009). In addition, I will bring forward how the young women engage in strategies to challenge this stigmatization by applying measures to increase their respectability (cf. Skeggs).