Drinking Status, Labeling, and Social Rejection

Abstract

Summary This study, employing a five-way analysis of variance design, investigated the interplay of labels with other characteristics of social status from the basic interactional perspective within the area of problem drinking. Use of Triandis' person perception paradigm allowed the systematic examination of the effects of sex of respondent with four stimulus characteristics (drinking status, religion, age, and employment status) over three types of behavioral intentions (respect, friendship acceptance, and social distance) across three dissimilar samples. Three samples participated in the study: (a) a community group consisting of 101 males and 104 females, with an average age of 44.5 years; (b) a practitioner group consisting of 73 male and 46 female students in a graduate school of social work, with an average age of 27.1 years; and (c) an institutionalized client group consisting of 48 male inmates of a state correctional institution, with an average age of 32.1 years. The findings yielded general empirical support for the interactional perspective in terms of the interplay between social characteristics and labels, as well as the interplay between labels and domains of behavioral intentions. In addition, support for the destigmatizing potential of certain labels was not found.