title: Attitudes towards the mentally and physically disabled.
abstract: This study set out to determine lay people's attitudes towards disabled people while specifically avoiding some of the major methodological problems of previous studies. One aim was to determine whether attitudes towards disabled people differed as a function of whether the handicap was physical or mental, and whether it was observable (visible) or not. A second aim was to determine whether the sex of the respondent or the type/amount of contact that he/she had had with disabled people affected their attitudes towards the disabled people. The results showed consistent differences between people's attitudes towards the physically as opposed to the mentally handicapped, with the former being seen more positively than the latter. However, the sex of the respondent and contact with the handicapped/disabled failed to show many significant differences. The results are discussed in terms of social interaction with disabled people.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001766:Blindness; D003638:Deafness; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004314:Down Syndrome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors