Subjects performed a team task with a confederate who either was disabled and acknowledged her disability, was disabled and did not acknowledge her disability, or was not disabled. In addition, the confederate performed either well or poorly on the task. Subjects were assessed on their ambivalence toward the disabled prior to working with their team partner. As predicted, subjects working with a disabled team partner who did not acknowledge her disability and did well on the task, rated her higher on agreeableness and spent more time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled. Subjects working with a disabled team partner who did not acknowledge her disability and did poorly on the task, rated her lower on agreeableness and spent less time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled. In addition, subjects working with a disabled team partner who acknowledged her disability and did well on the task, rated her higher on agreeableness and spent more time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled. Subjects working with a disabled team partner who acknowledged her disability and did poorly on the task, rated her higher on agreeableness than when she was not disabled. They spent less time discussing a topic with her than when she was not disabled, although the difference was not as great as when she did not acknowledge her disability. Furthermore, all of these effects only occurred when subjects had prior ambivalent attitudes toward the disabled. The results provide evidence for ambivalence as a moderator of the way people evaluate and behave toward the disabled. In addition, the results demonstrate that disability acknowledgment can be an effective interactional tactic that will result in positive evaluations and behavior toward the disabled.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/16999 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Day, James A. |
| Contributors | Schneider, David J. |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 163 p., application/pdf |
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