Acceptance of deafness in deaf adolescents: A repertory grid study

Abstract

The study investigated the acceptance and definition of deafness adolescents. A repertory grid (RG) technique was administered to 27 moderately to profoundly impaired subjects identified with neither deaf nor hearing persons, thereby denying their own deafness. Subjects also described deaf individuals (DI's) negatively but maintained positive self-concepts and displayed inadequate definitions of themselves and deafness. These findings have distinct implications for the management of the DI, with regard both to assessment and therapy. Results further demonstrated that the RG technique is an effective means to investigate the psychology of deafness.