According to the interactionist perspective, what are the consequences of labeling?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

According to the interactionist perspective, labeling can have serious consequences for students.
Labeling a person as a deviant, for example, can serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy when people begin to conform to the expectations of the labels attached to them. Likewise, a similar process can occur in the classroom when teachers label students as bright or dull. When students are so labeled, teachers may treat them differently, possibly giving the students who are labeled bright a little more encouragement and assistance. In addition, those labeled dull may assume that there is some truth in the label and may not try very hard. The result of both the students' and the teachers' reactions may be reinforcement of the label, or a self-fulfilling prophecy as the labelers create what they thought they were merely identifying in the first place. Schools, then, become a social problem when these face-to-face educational encounters produce stigmatizing results, lower students' self-esteem, and make educational success more difficult to achieve.