Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
1988
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Psychology
Advisor
Irwin Katz
Committee Members
Glen Hass
Greg Herek
Subject Categories
Psychology
Keywords
Personality and Social Contexts, Social Psychology
Abstract
This study examined the issue of ambivalence-induced behavioral amplification as applied to physically disabled individuals. The theory maintains that: (a) attitudes toward the disabled tend to be ambivalent rather than hostile, sympathetic or indifferent; (b) under certain conditions behavior toward disabled individuals may be more extreme than behavior toward nondisabled individuals; and (c) the extreme behavior is mediated by individual differences in ambivalence about disabled people in general. These three notions were tested. Internally consistent, independent scales of pro and anti attitudes toward the physically disabled were developed, supporting the notion of a high potentiality for ambivalence in attitudes toward the disabled. These scales were administered to college undergraduates who later worked at joint tasks with a nondisabled or apparently disabled confederate who was responsible for the group's success or failure. It was predicted that the disabled confederate would be evaluated more favorably than the nondisabled confederate in the success condition, and more negatively than the nondisabled confederate in the failure condition. It was also predicted that individual differences in attitudinal ambivalence (i.e., tendency to get high scores on both the pro and anti attitude scales) would be correlated with the extremity of ratings of the disabled confederate, but that neither pro nor anti scores alone would be related to the evaluation of the confederate. Contrary to prediction, it was found that the disabled confederate was evaluated more favorably than the nondisabled confederate regardless of the game outcome. That is, evaluations reflected a sympathy effect rather than an extremity effect. Attitudinal ambivalence was unrelated to the evaluation of the confederate. Individuation of the disabled target, the avowal of the disability and the negative self-presentation of the confederate in the failure condition are discussed as possible explanations of the results.
Recommended Citation
Bailey, Joan Weisenfeld, "Attitudes about Disabled People and Evaluations of a Disabled or Nondisabled Task Partner after Success or Failure" (1988). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6071
Comments
Digital reproduction from the UMI microform.