Totsika, V; Jones, R; (2017) Changing students’ attitudes to people with intellectual disabilities: findings from a natural experiment. The Bulletin of the Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities , 15 (1)

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Abstract

Clinical psychologists are often involved in attempts to change attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities. Sometimes this is with groups of carers and staff and sometimes with students (trainees or undergraduates). This study examined whether exposure to publicly available videos can change students’ attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities (ID), and whether the content of videos (positive or negative) was associated with differential attitude change. Overall, 153 psychology undergraduates participated in the study, with 102 watching a negative content video (Winterbourne View) and 51 watching a positive content video. A quasi-experimental design compared two equal-sized groups matched on initial levels of attitudes (N=29 in each group). Results indicated that the content of video was associated with a different course of change: the positive video related to improvement in empowerment, similarity, proximal living attitudes, while the negative was associated with a worsening in attitudes. These findings are directly relevant to the training environments familiar to clinical psychologists. Videos can be useful means of changing attitudes where direct contact with people with ID is not possible. To achieve positive change in attitudes, videos need to bring out the strengths of people with ID by emphasising their achievements.

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