The self-perception of athletes with disability

Abstract

Psychological studies show that people often see those with disabilities in a stereotyped way. Athletes with disabilities are most often seen as 'poor' or 'superheroes'. Apart from their exposure to prejudice and stereotyped social perception, people with disabilities, more often than people without disabilities, face inefficiency in the field of sport. This can result in sport being a double-edged sword, which can improve or impair one's self-image. The aim of this study was to determine how athletes with disabilities see themselves: what is their real self-perception? It was presumed that there are significant differences in terms of the age or gender of the participants. A self-perception inventory was used as an instrument, composed of thirty attributes of personality estimated on a four degree scale. 19 athletes with disabilities aged between 14 and 60 participated in this study. Eight of the participants were younger than 26 years, and 11 were older; there were14 males and 5 females. The results showed statistically significant differences in self-perception among the participants of different ages or gender. Attributes that dominated among the athletes with disabilities were positive self-perception and a positive self-image (for example, being self-confident, cheerful, relaxed, ambitious, decent). Although the study involved a relatively small number of participants and did not directly consider the correlation between self-perception and sports, the results correspond with the general trend of psychological studies confirming the positive effect of sports activities on the self-concept of people with disabilities.

Keywords

• stereotype
• social perception
• sport
• self-description