Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (Jun 2019)
Beliefs of Non-Deaf Adults about Deaf Individuals in terms of Demographic Variables: A Descriptive Preliminary Study
Abstract
Attitudes and social distance to the groups that are rarely contacted in society have been one of the subjects that social psychology and developmental psychology work closely from past to present. Communities of deaf individuals are relatively infrequent social groups in society. In particular, it carried out in Turkey and examining the associations between attitudes and beliefs towards these groups, and various demographic characteristics, there are a limited number of studies. In the literature, there is a need for new studies that depict the relationship between various demographic characteristics and attitudes and beliefs. In this study, we examined the relationship between various demographic characteristics and beliefs towards deaf individuals. In this way, we aimed to describe the relationship between the related variables by making a preliminary study. One hundred and sixty-four people between the ages of 18-62, whose mean age is 27.44, participated in the study. We used the Opinions About Deaf Peoples Scale by Berkay, Gardner and Smith (1995) to measure beliefs and attitudes towards adult deaf people. The results showed that a very small portion of our sample was deaf individuals of the first degree (n = 6) and/or second degree (n = 13) relatives, and only four of them were able to communicate through Turkish Sign Language. In the daily life of the participants, the average of contact with a deaf person (M = 2.02 / 5 Likert type measurement) is very low. There is no relationship between age and attitude towards the deaf. When education level (r = .22), and per capita income in the family (r = .24) increase, attitudes towards the deaf become positive. The attitudes of women towards deaf people (M = 4.31) were more positive than men (M = 3.39), p <.001. This study showed that some demographics such as sex, education level, and income are associated with opinions about deaf people.
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