Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Negative attitudes toward people with mental illnesses leads these individuals to utilize non-traditional avenues of support-seeking, including online venues. Within these venues, particularly the website Tumblr, the practice of self-diagnosing is common. At present, self-diagnosing is understudied, making it difficult to determine if self-diagnosed individuals face public stigma. Thus, one question about this phenomenon is as follows: are people who present themselves online as self-diagnosed stigmatized compared to those who present themselves as professionally diagnosed? The proposed thesis will address this question. Participants will view one of three Tumblr blogs (professionally diagnosed, self-diagnosed, and no diagnosis). It is hypothesized that participants will express differential desires to distance themselves from individuals who claim to have been self-diagnosed as compared to individuals who say they have been professionally diagnosed.

Year manuscript completed

2018

Year degree awarded

2018

Author's Keywords

self-diagnosis, tumblr, stigma, public stigma

Degree Awarded

Master of Science

Department

Psychology

College/School

College of Humanities and Fine Arts

Thesis Advisor

Sean Rife

Committee Chair

Sean Rife

Committee Member

Jana Hackathorn

Committee Member

Marie Karlsson

Committee Member

Angie Trzepacz

Document Type

Thesis

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