Stereotypes about Adults with Learning Disabilities: Are Professionals a Cut Above the Rest?
Abstract
Purpose: The study examined the differing perceptions of professionals and the public (non-professionals) regarding life success for adults with learning disability (LD).
Method: The sample (N = 342) consisted of 175 professionals (P) and 167 non-professionals (NP), with a mean age of 30.02 years and S.D. = 12.42 years. Their perceptions about life success of an individual with learning disability were studied with the help of four vignettes that provided hypothetical information about the age, class, and hobbies of a college student. The four vignettes were identical in describing the student and only differed in terms of gender (M and F), and presence and absence of learning disability (LD and NLD).
Results: No significant difference was found between attitudes held by professionals and non-professionals. Both the groups showed significantly greater negative attitudes about perceived life success for adults with learning disability than for those without learning disability. The results have been discussed with the help of social psychological theories in the areas of attitude, bias, and stigmatization.
Conclusion and Implications: It is clear that a negative bias exists toward individuals with learning disability in the urban Indian milieu. The fact that not only the public but also professionals were biased against individuals with learning disability regarding their life success implies that negative stereotypes are deeply embedded. This research may provide the impetus to address issues like prevalence of stigma against learning disability in society, its effective attenuation as well as equality and inclusion for individuals with learning disability.
Full text article
Authors
Copyright (c) 2019 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License By-NC-ND 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
