Jo Phelan received her MA in psychology and PhD in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and completed post-doctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology at Columbia University.

Current Interests

Her research interests include social stigma, conceptions of mental illness, the impact of the "genetics revolution" on the stigma of mental illness, attitudes and beliefs relating to social inequality and its legitimation, and social inequalities in health and mortality.

Publications

Phelan, J.C. (Forthcoming). Genetic bases for mental illness – a cure for stigma? Trends in Neuroscience.

Phelan, J.C., R. Cruz Rojas and M. Reiff. (Forthcoming). Genes, disease and stigma: The connection between perceived genetic etiology and attitudes and beliefs about mental illness. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Skills.

Link, B.G. and J.C. Phelan. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology 27: 363-85.

Phelan, J.C., B.G. Link, A. Stueve and B.A. Pescosolido. (2000). Public conceptions of mental illness in 1950 and 1996: What is mental illness and is it to be feared? Journal of Health and Social Behavior 41: 188-207.

Phelan, J.C. and B.G. Link. (1999). Who are "the homeless"?: Reconsidering the stability and composition of the homeless population. American Journal of Public Health 89: 1334-38.

Aneshensel, C.S and J.C. Phelan. (1999). Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Phelan, J.C. (1999). The stigma of mental illness: Some empirical findings. In Evidence Based Psychiatry. Volume 2: Schizophrenia. M. Maj and N. Sartorius (eds.) John Wiley and Sons, 281-3.

Phelan, J.C. and B.G. Link. (1999). The labeling theory of mental disorder (I): The role of social contingencies in the application of psychiatric labels. In A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health. A.V. Horwitz and T.L. Scheid (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 139-50.

Link, B.G., J.C. Phelan, M. Bresnahan, A. Stueve, and B.A. Pescosolido. (1999). Public conceptions of mental illness: Labels, causes, dangerousness and social distance. American Journal of Public Health 89: 1328-1333.

Phelan, J., E.J. Bromet and B.G. Link. (1998). "Psychiatric illness and family stigma." Schizophrenia Bulletin 24: 115-26.

Phelan, J.C. and B.G. Link. (1998). "The growing belief that people with mental illnesses are violent: The role of the dangerousness criterion for civil commitment." Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 33: S7-12.

Link, B.G., M.E. Northridge, J.C. Phelan and M.L. Ganz. (1998). Social epidemiology and the fundamental cause concept: On the structuring of effective cancer screens by socioeconomic status. Milbank Quarterly 76: 375-402.

Phelan, J.C., B.G. Link, R.E. Moore, and A. Stueve. (1997). The stigma of homelessness: The impact of the label "homelessness" on attitudes toward poor persons. Social Psychology Quarterly 60: 325-37.

Phelan, J., B.G. Link, A. Stueve and R.E. Moore. (1995). "Education, social liberalism and economic conservatism: The case of attitudes toward homeless people." American Sociological Review 60: 126-140.

Link, B.G. and J.C. Phelan. (1995). Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. Journal of Health and Social Behavior extra issue: 80-94.