Stigma and multiple social comparisons in people with schizophrenia

This paper investigates social comparisons in people with schizophrenia. St igma theories often suggest that people with stigmatized conditions face a chronic threat to self-esteem and that they respond to this in a variety of ways, one of which is by using ingroup downward comparisons. We analysed t he spontaneous social comparisons used by, participants in semi-structured interviews. A wide range of comparison dimensions, target others, and group ings were used, most of which did not represent a category of people with s chizophrenia in more negative terms than those without the illness. Partici pants presented themselves positively, referring to downward and lateral co mparisons more often than upward comparisons. In addition, although downwar d comparisons did refer to people with schizophrenia, they were more likely to refer to others who did not have schizophrenia, and to dimensions which were not related to mental illness. It is suggested that investigations of the relations between stigma and self need to take account of the multiple identities and dimensions of comparisons available to people for construin g themselves and the social context. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.