The Resonance of Beauty

Beauty is a central concern in the works of two modern American poets, Elizabeth Bishop and Richard Wilbur. Both poets have formal styles with emphases on descriptive imagery and natural tropes. While these two poets have often been studied individually in their own right, they have not previously been studied together with the particular focus on beauty. So, in my thesis, through close study of many of their works, I draw out their understandings of beauty and discuss how they relate to each other and to their audience. Iprimarily utilize their most extensive collections, which are Bishop’s The Complete Poems: 1927-1979 and Wilbur’s Collected Poems:1943 - 2004. I also drew from other less anthologized sources and prose work. In my first chapter, I examine Bishop’s work closely, and in my second chapter I analyze Wilbur’s poetry. I conclude that the concept of beauty is similarly important for both poets, but motivates them to different levels of action and commitment,Bishop’s understanding of life being less spiritual than Wilbur’s. I introduce the possibility that beauty represents a positive reality that may prove more inspiring and victorious than the pain and hardship encountered throughout human life.

Investigating the Role of System Justification in Mental Illness Stigma

The current study integrates system justification theory with research on mental illness stigma. Stereotypes of both low- and high-status groups in society can be a means of satisfying the system justification motive, or the motive to view societal inequalities as justified (as reviewed in Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004). Corrigan, Watson, and Ottati (2003) proposed that system justification theory may be able to explain the origins of particular stereotypes of people with mental illness, such as dangerousness and incompetence. The primary goal of the present study was to investigate whether the stigmatization of people with mental illness – a specific form of stigmatization of a lowstatus group – can be at least partially attributed to a broader motive to justify societal inequalities. To test this, the current study included both an experimental manipulation of the perceived legitimacy of the social system and a measure of system-justifying beliefs. Stigmatization of individuals with mental illness was measured with both explicit selfreport measures (semantic differentials and the Attribution Questionnaire) and an implicit measure (a computer-based Implicit Association Test). The relationships between participant characteristics, such as personal experience with mental illness, and stigma were also investigated. Consistent with past research demonstrating only modest correlations between explicit and implicit stigma, greater self-reported fear toward a person with a chronic mental illness was weakly associated with increased implicit bias against mental illness in favor of physical disability. There was little support for the involvement of system justification in explicit stigma. Participants with personal experience with mental illness were less likely to self-report fear and avoidance of a person with a chronic mental illness. These findings have implications for stigmareduction efforts.