Alignment, Magnification, and Snowballing: Processes in the Definition of "Symptoms of Mental Illness"

Both Parsons' illness role theory and Scheff's labeling theory of mental disorder are characterized by an oversocialized conception of human action. Studies by the authors and others are reviewed to develop an alternative approach based on the premise that problematic experiences (e.g., “symptoms of mental illness”) are interpreted in a situational context. Alternative interpretations may be more often used than a mental illness explanation, which is usually a last resort. Processes in the response by self and significant others include alignment, in which explanations are formulated, snowballing, in which symptoms build on one another until they can no longer be ignored, and magnification, which refers to the tendency for the perceived disruptiveness of symptoms to increase with decreasing social distance.