Stereotyping, Stigma, Discrimination,Prejudice.

Stereotyping→ It is a fixed image or idea about someone or something that is wrong and true in some ways. There are two types of stereotyping: one is positive whereas another is negative and both are usually exaggerated idea about someone or something.

Prejudice→ It is a feeling towards a person due to his/her opinion. In other words, somebody prejudices when  his/her stereotype goes further. For example Laziz likes watching ‘boxing’. But her mother thinks that it is not a kind of sport (this is stereotyping) and   does not allow Laziz watching it (this is prejudice).

Discrimination→ It is unfair and unequal judgement of people based on their characteristics. What is more, it deprives people from the civil rights such as housing, become employment, education and so on. There are a lot of types of discrimination:cultural,sex  ,color,race,age and the list goes on.But the most widely spread one is race discrimination and color discrimination.For example in U.S.A,people discriminate each other by their skin color which is absolutely terrible view.  

  Stigma→ Stigma refers the attitudes and beliefs to lead, reject and fear those who perceive being different. It is also considered as a “mental illness”. There are three types of stigma and they are:

1)            Public stigma;

2)           Institutional sigma;

3)           Self stigma;

Public stigma – refers the beliefs and the attitudes of the public towards person with mental health. For example public thinks that people with psychiatric conditions are  dangerous and violent.

Mental stigma – refers when a person is thought some misconceptions about mental illness. For this reason, individuals may experience such kind of feelings namely anger, hopelessness and these feelings keep them seek a mental treatment for their mental health conditions.

When I asked the questions related to the topic, some of the people had some difficulties to express their opinion for some questions which is shown in the given graph below.

 As you can see from the chart that most of the students do not actually know what are stigma,prejudice and stereotype.However,when I asked for people the fifth question which is about ”what kind of people usually discriminate”, they all answered like this “The people who are from another culture, race , usually discriminate each other.

For example Muslims are discriminated because of their status. By this I mean, people have misconception that muslims are terrorists and they are the founders of terrorism.”It means that people know more about the discrimination than other types.It is also good to hear  it.