Attribution of traditional social roles to persons with intellectual disability

Abstract

Social roles are ways in which individuals are defined by others. If a person was perceived as being significantly different from others in some aspects that is considered of relative importance, and if that difference was negatively valued, the social roles attributed to that person could be seen as deviant (Wolfensberger, 1972). The objective of this research was to determine the presence of traditional social roles attributed to persons with intellectual disability by secondary school pupils. The sample consisted of 180 participants of both sexes who attended the first and the fourth grade of the secondary school. The attribution of deviant roles was determined by the modified version of Wolfensberger' Questionnaire that comprise following social roles: object of pity, burden of charity, menace, sick, subhuman, object of ridicule, object of dread, eternal child and holly innocent. It was found that our participants tend to attribute those traditional roles which are seen as socially acceptable as well as those which are related to medical model of disability.

Socijalne uloge predstavljaju neke od mogućih načina na koji nas druge osobe vide. Ako se neka osoba sagledava kao značajno različita u odnosu na opštu populaciju u nekim aspektima koji se smatraju značajnima i ako se ta razlika negativno vrednuje, onda se i socijalne uloge koje se pripisuju toj osobi mogu smatrati devijantnim (Wolfensberger, 1972). Cilj ovog istraživanja je da se utvrdi učestalost atribuiranja tradicionalnih socijalnih uloga osobama s intelektualnom ometenošću od strane gimnazijskih učenika. Uzorak se sastoji od 180 ispitanika oba pola koji pohađaju prvi i četvri razred srednje škole. Atribuiranje devijantnih socijalnih uloga utvrđeno je modifikovanom verzijom Volfensbergerovog upitnika u kome su navedene sledeće socijalne uloge: osobe koje izazivaju sažaljenje, osobe koje zaslužuju milosrđe, osobe koje predstavljaju pretnju, oni su bolesni, oni su ljudi drugog reda, oni izazivaju podsmeh, osobe kojih se treba bojati, oni su večna deca i oni su svete, nevine osobe. Dobijeni rezultati pokazuju da naši ispitanici ispoljavaju tendenciju pripisivanja tradicionalnih uloga koje se smatraju socijalno poželjnim, kao i onih koje su vezane za medicinski model ometenosti.