Abstract
Using a between-subjects design, 208 college students completed three versions of the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP) to determine whether the language used to describe persons with a disability would affect respondents’ scores. The sample included individuals who had previously sustained a head injury with at least momentary loss of consciousness (N=59), students who had not experienced a head injury but who had lived with a relative who had (N=44), and students who had not experienced a head injury and who did not have a relative who had experienced a head injury (N=105). We randomly assigned different versions of the ATDP, using the original unaltered, disabling, or nondisabling descriptors, to paticipants who completed the forms they received. The descriptors used were “disabled person” (original descriptor), “person with a disability” (nondisabling descriptor), and “the disabled” (disabling descriptor). No significant differences in ATDP scores were evident for the effects of group or form. The only significant finding was a main effect for gender, indicating that more favorable attitudes were expressed by female respondents than by male respondents. These results have significant implications with regard to research on disabling language and the importance of process and content variables in defining disabling language.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Caplan, B., and Shechter, J. (1993). Reflections on the “depressed,” “unrealistic,” “inappropriate,” “manipulative,” “unmotivated,” “noncompliant,” “denying,” “maladjusted,” “regressed,” etc. patient.Arch. Phys. Med. Rehab. 74: 1123–1124.
Coon, R. C., Gouvier, W. D., Caldwell, K., and Hulse, K. (1991). Perception of register variation in speech and its relation to differential judgments about handicapping conditions.J. Head Injury 2: 16–20.
Ewing, R., McCarthy, D., Gronwall, D., and Wrightson, P. (1980). Persisting effects of minor head injury observable during hypoxic stress.J. Clin. Neuropsychol. 2: 147–155.
Golfus, B. (1990). I hear you talkin’ to me.This Brain Has a Mouth, Sept./Oct.: 4–5.
Gouvier, W. D., Steiner, D. D., Jackson, W. T., Schlater, D., and Rain, J. S. (1991). Employment discrimination against handicapped job candidates. An analog study of the effects of neurological causation, visibility of handicap, and public contact.Rehab. Psychol. 36: 121–129.
Gouvier, W. D., Coon, R. C., Fuller, K. H., and Amoldi, K. (1992). Evaluation of linguistic variations by college students with and without head injuries.Rehab. Psychol. 37: 165–174.
Gouvier, W. D., Coon, R. C., Todd, M. E., and Fuller, K. H. (1994). Verbal interactions with individuals presenting with and without physical disability.Rehab. Psychol. 39: 263–268.
Gouvier, W. D., Barbin, J. M., Hayes, J. S., and Deumite, S. (1997a). Written descriptors are a nonsalient form of “disabling language” among persons with spinal cord injury (in preparatoin).
Gouvier, W. D., Barbin, J. M., Plum, R., and Coon, R. C. (1997b). An evaluation of prosodic and content variations in college students with and without head injuries.Int. J. Rehab. Health 3: 41–49.
Gove, W. R. (1976). Societal reactions theory and disability. In Albrecht, G. L. (ed.), The Sociology of Physical Disability and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
Hanks, M., and Poplin, D. E. (1981). The sociology of physical disability: A review of literature and some conceptual perspectives.Deviant Behav. Interdisc. J. 2: 309–328.
Katz, I., and Glass, D. C. (1979). An ambivalence theory of behavior toward the stigmatized. In Austin, W., and Worchel, S. (eds.), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Brooks/Cole, Monterey, CA.
Kay, T., Harrington, D. E., Adams, R., Anderson, T., Berrol, S., Ciccerone, K., Gerber, D., Goka, R., Harley, P., Hilt, J., Horn, L., Lehmkulh, D., and Malex, J. (1993). Definition of mild traumatic brain injury.J. Head Trauma Rehab. 8: 86–87.
O’Jile, J. R., Ryan, L. M., Parks-Levy, J., Gouvier, W. D., Betz, B., Groves, A., Coon, R. C., and Tretter, M. L. (1995). Psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with mild head injury in a college sample.J. Int. Neuropsychol. Soc. 1: 121. (abstract).
Patterson, J. B., and Witten, B. J. (1987). Disabling language and attitudes toward persons with disabilities.Rehab. Psychol. 32(4): 245–248.
Research and Training Center on Independent Living (1990).Guidelines for Reporting and Writing About People with Disabilities, Lawrence, University of Kansas, Kansas.
Warren-Leubecker, A., and Bohannon, J. N. (1989). Pragmatics: Language in social contexts. In Berko-Gleason, J. (ed.),The Development of Language, Merril, Columbus, OH.
Weinberg, N. (1976). Social stereotyping of the physically handicapped.Rehab. Psychol. 23(4): 115–124.
Weinberg, N. (1983). Social equity and the physically disabled.Social Work, Sept/Oct.: 365–369.
Wright, B. A. (1983).Physical Disability: A Social-Psychological Approach, Harper. New York.
Yuker, H. E. (1977). Attitudes of the general public toward handicapped individuals. InWhite House Conference on Handicapped Individuals, Vol. 1. Awareness Papers, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
Yuker, H. E., and Block, J. R. (1986).Research with the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Scales (ATDP) 1960–1985, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
Yuker, H. E., Block, J. R., and Young, J. H. (1970).The Measurement of Attitudes Towards Disabled Persons, Human Resources Center, Albertson, NY.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gouvier, W., Betz, B., O’Jile, J.R. et al. The influence of written disabling, nondisabling, and unaltered disability descriptors on attitudes toward persons with a disability among persons with and without a head injury. Int J Rehab Health 3, 99–106 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02806723
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02806723