This was a study of the effect of contact with persons with disabilities on attitudes toward persons with disabilities by persons without disabilities. The study was based on Allport's (1954) contact theory for reducing tensions between races. The investigator examined equal-status contact between an individual with a disability and subjects without disabilities over a two-hour time period. / Subjects for the study were 102 students enrolled in the F.S.U. College of Education's undergraduate Communication and Human Relations classes. Subjects were assigned to one of four treatment groups or a comparison group. In two of the treatment groups, subjects and the confederate with a disability were given a task to perform; in two of the treatment groups the confederate with a disability volunteered information about her disability and invited disability-related questions. The comparison group had neither a confederate with a disability nor a task to perform. / All subjects completed the Issues in Disability attitudinal assessment (Makas, Finnerty-Fried, Sigafoos and Reiss, 1986) and a demographic questionnaire which included information about their age, gender, academic major and previous contact with individuals with disabilities. / No significant difference was found in attitude scale scores either between subjects in treatment groups and the comparison group or between task and information groups. Overall scores on the attitudinal instrument were higher than expected, and there was a wide range of scores by academic majors. Also, only 11 of the 102 subjects reported no previous contact with persons with disabilities. Most of the subjects (64) had had previous contact on a medium or high level, possibly explaining the lack of effect of the experimental procedure on the attitudinal measure. Scores by subjects who reported high previous contact level were higher than those of subjects who reported no previous contact. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-01, Section: A, page: 0081. / Major Professor: E. Jane Burkhead. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78413 |
| Contributors | Leach, Robin Hood., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 121 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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