Impacts of labeling and competence on peers' perceptions: mentally retarded versus nonretarded perceivers.
In an attempt to determine whether educably mentally retarded children hold the same attitudes towards members of their group that nonretarded children hold, regular-class and special-education class students in junior high school indicated their trait perceptions of and willingness to interact with same-sex target children who were either competent or incompetent spellers and who were labeled as either regular-class or special-class students. Although both groups perceived competent peers more positively than incompetent peers, only nonretarded students perceived peers labeled as special-education students more negatively than they perceived unlabeled peers. Neither group expressed any unwillingness to interact socially with either an incompetent or a special-class student. Thus, within the context of this study, there was no evidence that special-education students internalize prevailing negative attitudes toward their group.
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping