Employment and Rehabilitation Counselors Characterize one another Using Stereotypes

Abstract

Thirty employment counselors appraised personal and job‐related attributes of rehabilitation counselors using a 67‐item semantic differential stereotype scale. Thirty rehabilitation counselors rated themselves and also how they believed employment counselors would rate rehabilitation counselors on the same scale. The rehabilitation counselors' self‐ratings revealed a generally positive self‐portrait; however, the self‐ratings, when compared to how they believed employment counselors perceived rehabilitation counselors, yielded statistically significant negative relationships on 60 scales. Comparison of perceived versus actual ratings of rehabilitation counselors by employment counselors showed statistically different ratings on 49 scales, all in a positive direction. That employment counselors perceived rehabilitation counselors much more positively than the latter expected helps explain why placement functions and team cooperation are limited among these professionals, and should therefore be increased.

Prestige and Occupational Therapy in Mental Health

“…These other professionals also ranked and rated themselves higher than the occupational therapist, and they ranked and rated registered nurse higher as well. Consistent with other studies in which certain groups held a Janet Folk-Kessler and Peter Ruopp 63 higher regard for their own profession's prestige than that held by others (Chartrand, Dohrn, Davis, and Lofquist, 1987;Parker and Chan, 1986,b;Parker and Reisch, 1981;Streed and Stoecker, 1991), occupational therapists' perception of their own prestige was higher than the perceptions held by the other disciplines. While the general ratings are consistent across disciplinary lines, the variation in how occupational therapists view their own prestige may reflect their general positive regard for occupational therapy as a profession, as well as their hope for increased stature.…”

Professional stereotyping and interprofessional education

“…Respondents are required to indicate, on the scale, their level of agreement with the adjectives. The scale demonstrates good reliability (Parker & Reisch 1981;Streed & Stoecker 1991). In addition, a further question was added, based on and used by Katz et al (2001), to assess the degree of extracurricular activity between the two groups of students.…”

Physical and Occupational Therapy Undergraduates' Stereotypes of One Another

“…The questionnaire consists of 67 pairs of bipolar adjectives arranged randomly and counterbalanced, with each pair ranked on a scale of 1 to 7 by the respondent. The scale follows a semantic differential format in which each column has both positive and negative descriptors to avoid bias (Parker & Reisch, 1981). This format allows for specification of agreement of feelings rather than just merely noting the presence of pertinent adjectives.…”

“…Stereotypes can be positive; however, Streed and Stoecker (1991) cautioned that negative and inaccurate stereotypes may impede collegial relations between occupational and physical therapists. This, in turn, may affect the quality of health care delivery (Parker & Reisch, 1981).…”