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Public Stigma Towards The Presentation Of Self-Diagnosed Mental Illness, Asheley Marie Roberts

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

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 …