Dear Kelly,
In some research looking at attitudes towards people with Down's
syndrome I found no attitude scale which I would have wanted to use -
some had poor psychometric properties, some were old and used outdated
language, but all revealed the scale developer's subjectivity to some
extent and I was not happy with them. (See also Antonak, R. F. & Livneh,
H. (1988). The Measurement of Attitudes towards People with
Disabilities: Methods, Psychometrics and Scales. Charles C. Thomas,
Springfield, Illinois.)
In the end I used open-ended measures of attitudes - originally
developed by a group of Canadian researchers in order to examine
prejudice towards, and stereotyping of, minority groups (Esses and
Zanna, 1989; Esses, Haddock, and Zanna, 1993). Studies using these
measures have been used to assess the differing contributions of
cognitive, affective, and behavioral information in predicting attitudes
toward people grouped by a number of variables including disability
(Esses and Beaufoy, 1994; Kiger, 1997). The measures assess each class
of attitudinal information using a structured free-response format which
allows participants to define their own responses.
Esses, V. M. & Beaufoy, S. L. (1994). Determinants of attitudes toward
people with disabilities. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality 9,
43-64.
Esses, V. M., Haddock, G. & Zanna, M. P. (1993). Values, stereotypes,
and emotions as determinants of intergroup attitudes. In Affect,
Cognition, and Stereotyping: Interactive Processes in Group Perception,
eds. Mackie, D. M. & Hamilton, D. L., pp. 137-166. Academic Press, San
Diego.
Kiger, G. (1997). The structure of attitudes toward persons who are
deaf: emotions, values, and stereotypes. Journal of Psychology 131,
554-560.
These might not be the most 'accepted' but I found them useful
Louise
Dr Louise Bryant
Research Fellow
Academic Unit of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences
University of Leeds
15 Hyde Terrace
Leeds LS2 9LT
email: [log in to unmask]
telephone: 0113 343 1882
fax: 0113 243 3719
-----Original Message-----
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kelly George
Sent: 25 January 2007 16:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: attitudes scales -- which one to use?
Hi,
Any advice on the most accepted scale to use in measuring attitudes
toward
people who are blind or attitudes toward people with disabilities?
I am a graduate student in Health Communication at Emerson College in
Boston and the college has awarded me a Social Justice Leadership grant
to
implement an experiment measuring the effects of media representations
of
people who are blind on audience attitudes towards people who are blind.
I want to be sure I use the attitude measurement scale most widely
accepted by the Disability Studies community or interested social
scientists. I am aware of the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Scale
(Yuker er al, 1960), the Attitudes to Blindness Scale (Cowen et al,
1958)
and the MID scale (Makas, 1985). I am completely new to this literature
though and I wonder if anyone has any guidance on the most commonly
accepted scale to date.
In measuring the effects of media in particular on attitudes toward
people
with disabilities, does anyone have recommendations for suggested
reading?
Many thanks,
Kelly George
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