Abstract
The organization of the stigma in cate gories: actualization Goffman's taxonomical. The psychosocial concept of stigma implies a categorial model let to classify and to differentiate the different stigmatized groups. This has, in addition, effects on the process of stigmatization, and on the behavior and reactions to stigmatized people. However, and besides the different interpretations and meanings that stigmas have acquired along the history and in different social and cultural contexts, at present the empirical exploration about the categorial nature of stigma in non existent. The purpose of this research is, using an adaptation of the taxonomy proposed by Goffman in 1963, to assess if stigmas have a coherent categorial structure in three independent dimensions: physical, psychological or sociocultural; or if stigmas reflect at once characteristics of the three types. With this objetive, a questionnaire of stigmas was applied to 169 university students. Results show the among-categories flexibility, as well as the within-category differentiation of the perceived stigmas.
