Full Description
Disability and Social Representations Theory provides theoretical and methodological knowledge to uncover the public perception of disabilities.
Over the last decade there has been a significant shift from body to environment, and the relation between the two, when understanding the phenomenon of disabilities. The current trend is to view disabilities as the outcome of this interaction; in short from a biopsychosocial perspective. This has called for research based on frameworks that incorporate both the body and the environment. There is a great corpus of knowledge of the functions of a body, and a growing corpus of environmental factors such as perceptions among specific groups of persons towards disabilities. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the perception of disabilities from a general population. This book offers an insight into how we can broaden our understanding of disability by using Social Representations Theory, with specific examples from studies on hearing loss. The authors highlight that attitudes and actions are outcomes of a more fundamental disposition (i.e., social representation) towards a phenomenon like disability.
This book is written assuming the reader has no prior knowledge of Social Representations Theory. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and professionals working in the fields of disability studies, health and social care, and sociology.
Contents
List of figures; List of tables; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Copyright declarations; Abbreviatiosns; Section I: Disabilities in our minds: Social Representations Theory and methods in context; 1. Representations of disabilities; 2. Introduction to the Social Representations Theory; Section II: Application of the Social Representations Theory in disability studies; 3. How to study social representations?; 4. Cross-culture research and social representations; Section III: Using social representations theory in understanding public perception of hearing loss and hearing aids; 5. Attitude towards hearing loss and hearing aids; 6. Social representation of hearing loss and hearing aids; 7. Representation of hearing loss and hearing aids in the United States newspapers; Section VI: Implications and future directions; 8. Advantages of Social Representations Theory and further directions; Index
