title: Extremity of semantic differential ratings in deaf and hearing subjects.
abstract: A comparison was made separately by sex of 19 deaf and 19 hearing Ss on mean semantic differential ratings of contradictory concept-pairs. There were nine deaf males, 10 deaf females, 11 hearing males, and eight hearing females with mean ages of 23.00, 21.90, 20.73, and 19.75, respectively. It was hypothesized that the deaf would make less extreme ratings of concept-pairs than hearing Ss and that they would shift their ratings of contradictory concept-pairs closer to the mean of the original ratings of the single concepts comprising the pairs. It was found that both predictions were true only for deaf males. Deaf females did not differ from hearing Ss.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001318:Authoritarianism; D003071:Cognition; D003638:Deafness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012659:Semantic Differential