Department of Sociology

Peggy A. Thoits is a sociologist whose research examines the social distributions of stress experiences, social support, and physical and mental health problems in the adult population. Thoits generally takes a social psychological approach in her research, examining the influences of social situational factors on individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. She has focused especially on the positive mental health effects of holding multiple roles and on the negative impacts of "identity-relevant" stressors -- major life events and chronic role strains that threaten personal identities. A related line of research explored the social patterning of deviant emotions, i.e., emotions that violate social norms of what one should feel and express in specific situations. Recent work has turned to the ways in which individuals resist the stigma of mental illness and to the process of recovering from mental disorder. Thoits taught at Washington State, Princeton, Indiana, Vanderbilt, University of North Carolina, and then Indiana again. At UNC, she was named the Taylor-Williams Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Research Professor of Social Medicine. At Indiana, she held the title of Virginia L. Roberts Professor of Sociology. Thoits was honored with the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Mental Health (2005), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASA Sociology of Emotions Section (2006), the Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Contributions to Medical Sociology (2010), the Cooley-Mead Award for Lifetime Contributions to Distinguished Scholarship in Sociological Social Psychology (2010), and the James R. Greenley Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Mental Health from the Society for the Study of Social Problems (2013). Now Emeritus Professor, she lives and continues research and writing in Chapel Hill, NC.