Author

Brena Bergman

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cottrell, Catherine

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Despite political, social, and economic variances cross-culturally, the perception of individuals with disabilities remains consistently negative. Previous research has proposed the Individualism-Collectivism paradigm as a means of analyzing how cultural values vary across the world. This study builds upon this research by investigating the relationship between cultural values and perceptions of disability, hypothesizing that individuals who align more with individualistic values are more prone to accepting individuals with disabilities, whereas those who identify with collectivistic values retain more negative attitudes towards disabilities in general. 96 participants answered questions regarding their cultural values and perceptions of disabilities. The results did not confirm the hypotheses, although previous literature suggests that the inconsistency is due to the specific analysis of one individualistic culture, rather than a broader cross-cultural examination.

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