Effects of the "mentally retarded" label on adult judgments about child failure.

نویسنده

  • J R Weisz
چکیده

Retarded children show marked susceptibility to learned helplessness. Three experiments illustrate how adults may foster this helplessness. In Experiment 1, college students reported causal attributions for failure and expectancies of future success for either "a 6-year-old child" or "a 9-year-old mentally retarded child with a mental age of 6 years." In Experiment 2, students reported attributions and expectancies for both children. In both experiments, insufficient ability was rated a more important cause of failure for the retarded than for the unlabeled child, insufficient effort was rated more important for the unlabeled child, and the retarded child was rated less likely to succeed in the future. In Experiment 3, students' responses indicated that either a low expectancy of success, an insufficient-ability attribution, or the retarded label alone would reduce the likelihood of their urging a child to persist after a failure. The results suggest a proposed attributional bias (overextension), a familiar attributional bias in a new context (discounting), and resultant helplessness-condoning behavior by adults.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Children's judgments and attributions in response to the "mentally retarded" label: a developmental approach.

Labels implying deviance or handicap can have stigmatizing effects. However, developmental theory and research suggest that such label effects may depend on cognitive processes that only develop in later childhood—processes such as trait inference and the logical linkage of attributions, expectancies, and behavior prescriptions. To test this possibility, we had third, sixth, and ninth graders w...

متن کامل

Survey the problems of families with mentally retarded child covered by Guilan Welfare Centers in2010

Introduction: Mental retardation is one of the most complicated, difficult and main problem in children and teenager who suffer growth retardation in physical, psychological, developmental, social and training domains. A mentally retarded child in family can have unsatisfactory effects on family structure and function and can impose physical, mental, social and economic burden on the family. So...

متن کامل

Effectiveness of Parent-Child Interaction Group Training on Behavioral Problems and Mother-Child Relationship in Mentally Retarded Children

Introduction: Mentally retarded is accompanied with many problems including relationship difficulty with parents and behavioral problems, and one of the training methods for reducing behavioral and communication problems is parent-child interaction training. As a result, the aim of this study was determine the effectiveness of parent-child interaction group training on behavioral problems and m...

متن کامل

Family's Mentally Retarded Child Problems under Protection of Welfare Centers

Introduction: Family is a social system in which disorder in one member can disrupt the entire family system. Proper understanding of family problems of mentally retarded children teaches children, their families and professionals working with them to alter their attitudes toward proper education and development planning. Objective: Aim of this study is to determine problems of families&rsquo...

متن کامل

Investigating the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Social Support with Mental Health of Mothers with Mentally Retarded Child

Background and Purpose: The existence of a mentally retarded child in a family compromises the mental health of the members, however, other variables play a role in explaining the psychological status of the parents of these children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mental health and social support and mindfulness of mothers with a mentally retarded child. ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Journal of abnormal psychology

دوره 90 4  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 1981