A Comparative Study of Personality Descriptors Attributed to the Deaf, the Blind, and Individuals with No Sensory Disability

Abstract

During the building of self-concept, one's self-perception is influenced by the attitudes and levels of acceptance of significant individuals in one's immediate environment and in society as a whole. This study explores the social image of the deaf, beginning with an analysis of personality characteristics attributed to this group. The resulting profile is then compared to those of two other previously assessed groups: the blind and those with no sensory disability. A sample of 222 university students evaluated personality descriptors as applied to the three groups by means of a semantic differential. For certain personality descriptors, the students had different impressions of the three groups. Results show that certain negative stereotypes still mark the social representation of deafness. Instances of familiarity or friendship between haring people and deaf people serve generally to mitigate such stereotypes

La théorie de la privation relative et les réactions au handicap: Le rôle des comparaisons intrapersonnelles dans la gestion de l'estime de soi

“…Concernant les préjugés et les stéréotypes, la plupart des recherches s'accordent sur le fait que les personnes handicapées sont généralement vues comme étant moins sociables, moins intelligentes (Cambra, 1996;Fichten & Amsel, 1986), ayant une estime de soi plus faible que les valides (Fichten, Robillard, Judd, & Amsel, 1989). Ces résultats sont d'autant plus intéressants que, dans ces études, les évaluateurs étaient des étudiants, et les évalués des étudiants également, à la différence près qu'ils étaient porteurs d'une "marque", d'un stigmate venant alors interférer dans les jugements et interactions (Crocker et al, JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL DE PSYCHOLOGIE, 2001, 36(5), [314][315][316][317][318][319][320][321][322][323][324][325][326][327][328] La théorie de la privation relative et les réactions au handicap: Le rôle des comparaisons intrapersonnelles dans la gestion de l'estime de soi Stéphane Dif, Serge Guimond, Delphine Martinot et Sandrine Redersdorff Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale de la Cognition, Université Blaise Pascal La théorie de la privation relative (PR) distingue habituellement les comparaisons interpersonnelles des comparaisons intergroupes, mais néglige les comparaisons intrapersonnelles.…”

Adult Attitudes Toward Behaviors of a Six-year-old Boy with Autism

“…To form an impression of a target, observers compare the target's behavior to some standard. Studies by Cambra (1996) and Fichten and Amsel (1986) have shown that when people with disabilities are perceived as ''unattractive'', it is in comparison to an ''attractive-person'' standard. Ravaud's (1994) study showed that if typically developing job applicants are preferred to disabled ones, it is because observers implicitly or explicitly compare the abilities of the person with a disability to those associated with typically developing individuals.…”

A multidimensional study of special education students' attitudes towards people with disabilities: a focus on deafness

“…Coryell, Holcomb and Scherer, 1992) which reported that students with normal hearing perceived students with deafness as being insensitive, disrespectful and even obnoxious, and these perceptions negatively in uenced their attitudes towards deafness. Another recent study (Cambra, 1996) showed similar personality descriptors attributed to the person with deafness: university students tended to classify the person with deafness as more nervous, unsure, imprudent and impulsive than the person with blindness, and persons with deafness were perceived as less kind and pleasant, possessing fewer friends, and more bored and passive than people with no sensory disability. These contradictory ndings might be accounted for by the speci c groups which were compared in different studies (persons with deafness vs hearing persons or vs other stigmatized groups), by the different level of contact the participants had with persons with deafness (attitudes based on actual contact vs attitudes towards an abstract concept of deafness) or by the different composition of items in the various measurement instruments which were used in the studies.…”

“…Hearing people's negative attitudes towards deafness and people with deafness are documented in the literature as well (e.g. Cambra, 1996;Dengerink and Porter, 1984;Padden and Humphries, 1988;Parasnis, DeCaro and Raman, 1996;Strong and Shaver, 1991). The origins of negative attitudes towards persons with disabilities are complex (for reviews see Livneh, 1982Livneh, , 1988.…”