Societal Psychology Year 1, Term 2 Social Constructions of

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Societal PsychologyYear 1, Term 2Social
Constructions of

• Disability

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Disability

• Alberto Corizzo

• 14 January 2008, 1000-1200hs
• Break, 15 minutes approx. at 1100.
• Interactive class. WE will be doing the class.
• Mobile, text, chat, etc,etc are not allowed

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By the end of the presentations you will be able
to gain a better understanding of

• The Social Construction of Social Problems

• Definitions of disability

• Religious and moral constructions of disabled
  people.

• Developments in Charities of the concept of
  disabilities.

• Disability as a social process

• Medical model of disability

• Eugenics model

• Psychological approaches to disability

• The social model of disability

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• What it is that makes social problems social?
• Why does some issues deserves public attention
• and not others?
• Why some of them appeared and disappeared?

.. " what is social about a social problem is
that such problem have gained a hold on the
attention of a particular society at a
particular time".. Clarke Cochrane ( 1998).
The social construction of social problems,
Chapter 1, p.4. In Embodying the social
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Homeless in 19th century was not 'perceived' as a
social problem but rather as a 'fact of life',
individual misfortune

• Scale of a particular or private problem may
  transform it into a public
• or social issue.
• Social Context in which it occurs ( Whose
  problem is this?)
• Some people "have" problems. Some people "are"
  problems
• Are they a threat or danger for the society?
• (E.g. Vandals, prostitutes, mentally ill, noisy
  neighbours
• Homeless may be both ?

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• Some people "have" problems. Some people "are"
  problems

Social Justice (If it is 'our' problem).
Economic/Political reasons/ Social
Social Order (If it is 'their' problem) ( Drugs,
Benefits, Mental illness, etc)
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Social Problems and Social Policies

• Perception that 'something' must be done. Some
  intervention is required
• I.e. Poverty, Drugs misusers, Prostitution,
  Disability, Race, Gender, etc,etc

Poverty is 'natural'/ inevitable. It is
life.. Poverty is the result of 'poor people' (
Lack of skills,etc) Poverty is the result of
economic and/or political causes
View of poverty
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Social Constructionism "The mean by which
humans could create order out of the
potential chaos of life" ( Berger
Luckmann, 1967)

• Order established ( By whom?)- Ideology (set
  of ideas)

E.g Unemployment may helps to control the
labour market

• People afraid to lost their job
• Cheap labour cost
• More market competition.
• Unemployed 'fighting' for a job.
• E.g. more qualification, more 'flexibility'

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Social Constructionism

• Emphasises the role of language as an essential
  feature of human societies
• Actions are preceded by understanding and
  intentions
• We intend our actions to have meaningful outcomes
• Our actions convey messages to other people in
  society
• Labelling
• How we label things affects how we behave
  towards those things
• The name, or label, carries with it expectations

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Is it a matter of label or the word
used? "Naming is a key process in the creation
of categories of people" (Gordon Rosemblum,
2001) "Power to establish and define policies"
Puerto RicansMexican- AmericanSpanish
AmericanHispanic.Latino Colour
.Negro..BlackAfro-American..African-
American HomosexualGays.queer Idiots,
Mongols, retarded, mentally deficient, subnormal,
mentally handicapped 'cap in hand', special
needs, learning difficulties, learning
disabilities, ..disabled people.people with
disabilitiesperson affected by.
It may develop hostility and devaluationinstituti
onalisation, dehumanisation
segregation..isolation
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Shhhhh, don't talk. It is a taboo

• A taboo is a thing, person or act that is subject
  to social or sacred prohibition (Mechanism of
  control by the establishment ?)
• Please, DON'T TALK ABOUT.Religion, sex, gays,
  lesbians.'disability'.
• It could makes the word safe by establishing
• clear boundaries between 'normal-abnormal',
• 'safe-dangerous', 'pure-dirty', divine- mundane
• (Douglas,1966).

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Defining disability

• Disability denotes the relationship between
  impairment, disability and handicap
• - Impairment is the loss or abnormality of
  psychological, physiological or anatomical
  structures or function
• disability is the resulting restriction or lack
  of ability or function to perform an activity in
  a manner within the range considered 'normal' for
  a human being
• - handicap is the disadvantage for a given
  individual, arising out of impairment and
  disability, that limits or prevents the
  fulfilment of daily activities or role considered
  normal (depending on age, sex and social and
  cultural factors) for that individual

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More Definitions

• (1) The condition of being unable to perform a
  task or function because of a physical or mental
  impairment (2) something that disables
  handicap (3) lack of necessary intellect,
  strength etc.
• (Collins Concise English Dictionary, 1986)
• Disability is a category which is central to how
  welfare states regulate an increasing population
  of their citizens. In this sense and context, it
  is a political and social construction used to
  regulate.
• (Fulcher, a political scientist, 1989, p.21)

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Defining disability

• There are competing positions as to how
  disability is best defined
• Definitions carry very different emphases and
  assumptions
• Some stress the unable or impaired individual
• Some point to institutions which disable people

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Measuring Disability
16 years
10 years old
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Religious and Moral Constructions of Disabled
People

• Disability has been religiously explained as
  divine punishment for sin/unnatural acts (Thomas
  (1971, p. 125)
• Along side deviancy, unnatural, and dangerous is
  a moral call to do good work and show pity to
  the less fortunate (Personal tragedy theory)
• One highly visible manifestation of this good
  work are charities

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The Rise of the Medical Model

• The process of medicalisation of mental illness
  was was born out of a power struggle between
  contesting experts the management of the mad
• Moral Management non-scientific
• Medical professional were the only people who had
  the abilities required to safely work with those
  with mental health problems exclusive
  professional knowledge. The 'WISE' people
  know'''
• "Knowledge (The way of knowing about something)
  and Power (the way of acting on something").
  Experts doing diagnosis .( Saraga, 1998. p.69)

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The Medical model

• Views disability as pathology or illness
  Individual, medical, or personal tragedy (Barnes,
  1990, Shakespeare Watson, 1997)
• The way for society to respond to a person with a
  disability is to cure them to give them treatment
  which which will lessen or remove their
  disability normalise
• The solution to the problem is only when medicine
  decides it is cured . Promoted institutionalisatio
  n which was used as a form of social control

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Medical model
The Medical Model is the traditional definition
accepted in society where disability is view
as 'personal or biological tragedy' an
accidenta failure, a defected human being.
something was wrong
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Developments in charities and disability care

• Tied to the medical model
• In 1990 there were 170,000 charities in the UK,
  the top 200 charities had a combined income of
  1billion 50 of these were health charities.
• Advertisements from charities initially presented
  the most oppressive/negative imagery (Hervey,
  1992)
• More recent advertising by charities has tended
  to be more sensitive to potential stereotyping
  and negative images

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Psychological Approaches

• Stresses the importance of psychological factors
  grouped around the notion of intelligence (IQ
  test)
• Growth industry of testing people.
• 1950s - segregative hospitalisation, drug
  therapy, and intrusive measures
• Current move towards a more humane
  understanding of the difficulties of people with
  disabilities - community care

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Denied attributes valued in the society
'Disabled' are not expected to be dominant,
active, independent, adventurous competitive,
sexual, self controlled, healthy. Intelligent,
attractive, competent Therefore, it is a risk
to be seen as 'nothing but a problem' A problem
for the 'rest of us' ( Rosenblum Travis, 2000)
What about the right to die movement.eugenicbio-
genetic?
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Eugenics

• Improving the quality of human race .

• The science of improving the quality of the human
  race, especially by selective breeding to produce
  a strong race and thereby avoid contamination
  by immigration
• Certain groups having certain unchangeable
  defects
• Defective people threaten moral values and social
  order produce more defective people -
  dangerous lesser species
• Used supposedly natural characteristics to
  justify the oppression of certain groups

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DEHUMANISATION !!!!!

• Genocide or mass killing
• Racial, ethnic, religious or political group.
• One of the more infamous genocide during Nazi
  German.
• First step were 100,000 disabled Germans
  viewed as a 'burden' for the society.
• Ref Staub, E. 1990, in Societal Psychology

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"links between the medical and 'scientific'
classification of 'defective' categories of
human (minds and bodies) and the wider processes
of social control of " PROBLEM POPULATION" (
Saraga, 1998. P.72)
Disability
Benefits Sheltered Housing GPs Charities Spec
ial schools
Hospitals Therapists Social Workers Transportat
ion
Person
OTs
Medication
Adapted from Hughes, G (1998). Fig 2.1 "The
medical model of disability" p76
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Criticisms of the Medical model

• The invisibility of the person in the medical
  gaze Dehumanisation
• Medical facts and diagnosis determine not only
  treatment but also the form of life for the
  disabled person
• Rehabilitation and the quest for normality
• Subordination of the deviant disabled

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The Consequences

• People become known by their disability label
  the impairment becomes the focus for the person
• People are segregated from the rest of
  'non-disabled' society
• Childhood can be extended and independence never
  achieved

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Social Prejudice

• Common stereotypes about people with disability
• Homogenous " DISABLED"
• Pity
• Evil
• Super-cripple/Brave
• Innocence/Asexuality
• Dependent

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The Disability Movement

• Aims to transform the political agenda for
  disabled people - Charity to rights
• Oppressed citizens rather than dependent and
  needy individuals (e.g. equal opportunities in
  employment, welfare rights and housing)
• Sought to question disability dependence
• Independence for people with disabilities,
  Attempting to reclaim disability and celebrate
  difference
• If disability is viewed as a socially constructed
  its meaning may be changed through social and
  political action

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In a few words

• "disability is a societal process rather
• than physical or cognitive problem"
• "It is a complex and sophisticated form of
• Social oppression or institutional
  discrimination"
• Oliver, 1990

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The Social Model

• Disability as Social oppression
• Believe that rather than biology disabling
  people
• it is society that disables physically disabled
  people. Disability is something imposed on top
  of our impairments by the way we are
  unnecessarily isolated and excluded from full
  participation in society (Oliver, 1996, p. 33)
• Thus the differences due to disability dont
  matter and disability does not arise in
  individuals but in the barriers society erects
  (e.g. building and transport access) -
  disablement
• We are all dependent upon aids (e.g. phone,
  transport, tools, glasses, medication etc.) so
  why are some aids (e.g. mobility aids)
  stigmatising for people
• The equivalent cure in this model is for
  society to change, not the individual
• This change would have to be through both
  physical environmental change and through
  adaptation of views society holds about
  disability

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The social model of disability
Lack of employment Charities with
offensive Images of disability Lack of
access Prejudices Over-protective Families
Lack of financial independence Attitudes Languag
e labelling Isolation, segregation Fear,
ignorance. Lack of proper legislation
Disability
PERSON
Adapted houses 'ghettoism'
Adapted from Hughes, G (1998). Fig. 2.2 . The
social model of disability disablings forces at
work. p78
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Segregation to Community

• National Health Community Care Act 1990
• Different contested constructions of disability
  underpinned the 1990s debates
• Deinstitutionalisation due to conditions and
  treatment of people in institutions
• Care organised around ordinary life principles
  (Nirje, Wolfensberger)
• and quality of Life - experiences of of people
  with learning disabilities taken into account to
  a greater degree
• Demonstrates the varied and contested
  constructions of care for people with
  disabilities

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Criticisms of the social model

• Bury (1996) - ignores the relationship of chronic
  illness to disability in older people
• Focuses on a small minority of younger disabled
  people who have non-chronic relatively stable
  though perhaps severe forms of disability
• Demonstrates the importance of acknowledging that
  the disabled population is segmented and should
  not be treated as one homogenous group of people

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Counter Arguments

• Oliver (1990) - ALL disabled people experience
  disability as social restriction
• Barnes (1996) Research has been part of the
  oppression - the myth of the independent
  researcher
• Criticisms of the social constructionist approach
  also come from members of the disability movement
  and other researchers (e.g. Shakespeare)
• Morris (1991)- dominated by men
• Although they acknowledge the importance of
  focusing away from the medical and towards the
  social construction of disability, they feel that
  the lived experience of impairment has been
  ignored.
• Chappell (1998) - Accounts ignore the experiences
  of people with learning disabilities
• Social model theorists are wary of taking this
  approach

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Bringing the models together

• The debate between these two models influences
  the speed at which society changes the process
  of giving power to the disabled
• The debate affects public policy and peoples
  lives
• The medical model employs this heuristic, whilst
  the social model believes we should forget
  categories and diagnoses and look at the
  individual

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Disabled people's attitude toward other
impairments groups a hierarchy of
impairmentsMark Deal (2003). Disability and
Society, Vol.18, pp 897-910

• "Disabled people, like non disabled people, do
  not always wish to be associated with other
  impairment groups".
• Discriminated-discriminators?

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Material adapted from Dr. Darren Chadwick (MMU)
Available on Web CT

• Main Bibliography
• Hughes, Gordon ( 2005). A suitable case for
  treatment? Construction of
• Disability, Chapter 2, pp 42-89). Cited in
  Embodying the social Construction of
  difference. Ed. Esther Saga, Routledge,2005.
  London.
• Coles, J.(2001).The social model of disability
  what does it mean for practice in services for
  people with learning difficulties?. Disability
  and Society, Vol.16,4, pp 501-510.
• Gordon, B and Rosenblum, K.(2001). Bringing
  disability into the sociological frame a
  comparison of disability with race, sex, and
  sexual orientation statuses. Disability and
  Society, Vol 16, 4, pp 5-19.