COPING WITH STIGAM IN PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY

When dealing with information about their disease, persons with epilep sy try to avoid or limit social stigmatization. This paper describes t wo basic strategies of information control: a generalized strategy of concealment and a strategy of preventive disclosure. A total of 119 pa tients with epilepsy were asked to report their willingness to disclos e their disease in various hypothetical everyday situations. Results s hwed a greater willingness to disclose the more respondents feared tha t their interaction partner could find out about their seizures and th e more they anticipated that disclosure could have a positive impact o n impression formation. Results confirm the existence of a strategy of preventive disclosure in which persons with epilepsy strive to exert an influence on social judgment formation within their environment by purposefully talking about their disease in order to forestall the sti gmatization processes that could arise if other persons were to find o ut about the disease through observing a seizure or through informatio n from third persons.