Attitudinal changes of the hearing toward the deaf

Julie A. Stehle
April 30, 1996

Abstract

The growing awareness of diverse populations in our culture brings about concern for the equal and/or ethical treatment of such populations. In particular, the disabled communities have seen much media attention since the passage of the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The purpose of this experiment was to gauge college students attitudes about the capabilities of deaf individuals in particular using the Opinions About Deaf People Scale developed by Berkay, Gardner, and Smith which was published in 1995. Three groups of general Psychology students were given the scale and each were given different introductions to the scale. It was hypothesized that the two groups that received information regarding the deaf would score lower than those who received no information (control). A second hypothesis dealt with the scale itself. If the scale truly measured opinions and attitudes, then the group receiving the positive information would score best. If the scale actually measured pity for the deaf, then the group receiving the weak information would score best.

In fact, the two groups receiving information did score better than the controls but the strong presentation group scored the lowest (best). The results support the idea that exposure to positive information about the deaf can improve or reinforce positive attitudes and opinions of that culture (Strong & Shaver, 1991). The results also support the reliability and validity of the Berkay scale.

Introduction

In order to guarantee civil liberties and protect rights, governments will pass legislation designed to assist certain populations. In 1990 the United States government passed the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA). In this sweeping piece of legislation, all people with disabilities were guaranteed all same rights that most other people take for granted on a daily basis. Among the many ramifications of this Act, the disabled are now able to join mainstream society. But is mainstream society ready or willing for this to happen?

A critical review by Beaudry and Hetu (1990) showed that respondents in the studies examined, tended to have positive attitudes towards the hearing impaired. But prejudice and negative opinions can not be totally eradicated by legislation. There will still be a need for attitude modification. A comprehensive review by Strong and Shaver (1991) discussed reasons for modifying negative attitudes. Those attitudes can lower the self-worth of the deaf individual as well as limit the opportunities for education and full participation in society by the individual. If negative attitudes hold the deaf person out of mainstream society, there was no point in passing the ADA. Strong and Shaver (1991) also found that there was a lack of information in the realm of attitude modification. The results of the studies examined were not totally conclusive. They did find support for the type of conditions that can improve attitudes. Contact in a non-competitive setting where the deaf are the minority seems to feed positive attitudes. Another finding was that contact paired with information can improve attitudes. Perhaps proper information, without contact, in the right setting can impact attitudes as well. Following this line of research, is the pilot work by Silver (1994) in which potential employers of the deaf were shown an informative video to try and influence their opinions about the capabilities of deaf adults. Silver's results showed a positive and significant change in attitudes after viewing the tape.

In order to ascertain whether information in and of itself can be useful in attitude modification, this study of 110 college students was performed. The purpose of this study was to show if information by itself can be of assistance in attitude modification and if so, what type of information, weak or strong? A secondary purpose of this study was to examine exactly what the Opinions About Deaf People Scale measures, true opinion or pity for the disabled.

Methods

Subjects

A total of 110 general Psychology students were surveyed. All the subjects were students of Missouri Western State College located in St. Joseph, Missouri. St. Joseph is a town of around 70,000 situated 30 minutes north of Kansas City. 83.6% of the subjects were White, 6.4% were African-American, and both Hispanic and American Indians represented .9% of the subject pool each (8.2% did not answer). The subjects ranged in age from 18 to 47 with 72 of the subjects being age 21 or younger. 76.4% of the subjects had no prior experience with the deaf community with 3.6% not replying to that item. 50 of the subjects reported GPA's at or above 3.0. 39 subjects were male, 67 female and 4 did not reply. 70 subjects were Freshman, 22 Sophomores, 10 Juniors, 2 Seniors and 6 did not reply.

Materials

Subjects were tested using the Opinions About Deaf People Scale developed by Berkay, Gardner, and Smith (1995). The scale is a 20-item test of attitudes and opinions about the capabilities of deaf adults. The scale has a coefficient alpha of .83 and item-total correlations ranging from .22 to .58. Only 3 item total correlations were below .30. A low score indicates a positive attitude and a high score indicates a negative attitude. For this study the scale was scored with 0 and 1 ratings for a possible range of scores of 0 to 20. The scale has a split half reliability of .82. The subjects were also asked to give their age, ethnic background, major, year in college, GPA, and an explanation of any prior contact with the deaf.

Procedure

To assure a large sample size, subjects were not randomly assigned to conditions. Experimental conditions were randomly assigned to intact groups. Using general Psychology classes seemed to obtain a fairly random and representative sample of the campus. This conclusion is drawn by analyzing the data collected about the majors of the subjects in relation to the larger campus population. Each of the 3 groups responded to the same scale and sociodemographic items. The control group received no information and were simply told to respond to the scale items. The second group was given a weak presentation about deaf culture before filling out the scale. The third group was given a strong presentation before administration of the scale. Each group was debriefed after completing the scale. All the data was entered in the statistical program SPSS and a one-way ANOVA, multiple regression, and summary statistics were assessed.

Results

Because of the criticisms of previous studies by Beaudry and Hetu (1990), 7 sociodemographic variables were assessed. A multiple regression yielded 2 of the variables to be significant in predicting a score on the scale. Ethnic minorities (AfricanAmericans, Hispanics, American Indians) tended to have higher scores and more negative attitudes about the deaf. The higher the subjects GPA, the lower the score and more positive the attitudes about the deaf. The multiple regression also showed that the group the subject was in affected the score. The controls scored highest, then the weak presentation, and the strong presentation averaged the lowest, most positive score. The multiple regression also yielded a significant F value (F(3,79)=6.07, p<.01). The multiple regression was performed because the one-way ANOVA revealed a significant trend (p=.056) but could not yield a significant value (p>.05). The t-tests showed the difference between the control and strong information group to be significant (p<.05). The control group contained 33 subjects who scored an average of 3.0. The weak presentation group contained 28 subjects who scored an average of 2.68. The strong presentation group contained 49 subjects who scored an average of 1.96.

Discussion

The results lend support to the promising idea that information of any nature can sensitize and modify the attitudes of the hearing population. The results further support the strong presentation of positive information for modification of attitudes. This study also discovered 2 curious phenomenon. Ethnic minorities were less sensitive to information presented and had more negative opinions about the deaf than the White majority. And as GPA increased, the score on the scale decreased and the attitudes became more positive. This is representative of one of the criticisms presented by Beaudry and Hetu (1990) that studies conducted on highly educated or highly intelligent subjects will yield more positive results. This could be because of an increased open-mindedness and liberal attitude or it could be simply because these individuals "know what to say". Social desirability is always a concern with opinion scales. In fact, the results of this and many other studies could be attributed to the factor of social desirability.

Because of the lack of random assignment of subjects to conditions, this work needs to be replicated. If the results of this study are duplicated satisfactorily, they may lend support to simple educational campaigns to increase awareness and improve attitudes about the deaf and other disabled groups. Since the pilot work of Silver (1994) and this study show that information presentations can improve opinions about the capabilities of deaf adults, work may need to be done to discover what the best mode of presentation is, live and in person or through video. This work dealt with presentations given by a traditional, female college student. Silver's work dealt with a video taped presentation for future employers of deaf adults. There are possible extraneous variables, such as sex of the experimenter, at work that need to controlled for.

The mere fact that the reviews and critical examinations of research cited in this study only found 31 studies to critique, is of concern. The work by Beaudry and Hetu searched back to 1956 to find studies. It can be inferred by the lack of exposure of deaf adults to the mainstream culture and by the lack of research in this area, that there is a need for much work to be done. The deaf are among us and part of their own strong culture, but why do 84 out of 110 college students report no prior experience with the deaf? It is possible that the small Midwestern nature of the campus is the reason why the students do not have an exposure to diverse cultures. But it might be that the deaf simply do not make themselves known in this or other communities. Perhaps they feel threatened or uncomfortable around the hearing majority and wish to remain as out of the mainstream as possible. If so, this is a true loss and shame for the hearing world. The deaf community represents an entire group of people who can contribute to our society economically, culturally and socially. The ADA has provided the legal ground for the deaf to stand on, now we must provide the social arena.

References

Beaudry, J., & Hetu, R. (1990). Measurement of attitudes of those with unimpaired hearing towards the hearing impaired: A critical examination of the available scales. Journal of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, 14, 23-32.
Berkay, P. J., Gardner, E. J., & Smith, P. L. (1995). The development of the Opinions About Deaf People Scale: A scale to measure hearing adults' beliefs about the capabilities of deaf adults. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55, 105-114.
Silver, S. (1994). Attitudinal changes of employers to hearing impaired workers after utilizing an ASL/awareness videotape: A pilot study. Journal of the American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association, 28, 45-48.
Strong, C. J., & Shaver, J. P. (1991). Modifying attitudes towards persons with hearing impairments: A comprehensive review of the research. American Annals of the Deaf, 136, 252260.
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