Date of Award

2018-01-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Osvaldo F. Morera

Abstract

People with disabilities (PWDs) constitute about 15-20% of the total population. Health disparities among PWD's are due, in part, to stereotypes about PWDs as incompetent. These stereotypes may lead some healthcare providers (HCP) to patronize PWDs, over-focus on the PWDs' impairments and potentially neglect their presenting problem. Moreover, if the PWD violates stereotypical assumptions, the HCP may actively interfere with the PWD's goals. This Dissertation focused on the blind population because this is a large, stigmatized and understudied subpopulation of PWDs. In Study 1, the content of stereotypes about blind patients in the clinical setting were examined from the patient perspective by use of focus group interviews. The development of a measure assessing the perceived content of stereotypes faced by blind patients from their HCPs was motivated by the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) and prior literature reporting on the experiences of minority patients interacting with their HCPs, and written based on the experiences of blind patients. The latent factor structure was explored in Study 2 and validated in Study 3. The factor structure consisted of a two-factor model: the first factor assessed General discrimination by HCPs and the second factor assessed Stereotype Content Model-related aspects of interacting with HCPs. Future research should include testing the external validity of this scale with other sub-populations of PWDs. Furthermore, this measure may be used to evaluate training of HCPs to improve their service toward PWDs.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

163 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Nazanin Mina Heydarian

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