Students Toward Handicapped

ABSTRACT: Two curricuJar approaches for modifying nonhandicapped high school students' attitudes toward their exceptional peers were compared. One curriculum was structured around categories of exceptionality (e.g., mental retardation, sensory impairments] while the other focused on generic concepts, including values, conformity, individual differences, and labeling effects. Each curriculum was presented over a 10-week period and the effects assessed via two pencil-paper attitude evaluation scales. Results revealed that both curricula positively modified students ' attitudes, with subjects exposed to the categorical curriculum demonstrating signif-icantly greater attitude changes. The data are interpreted relative to the issue of labeling and the most effective means of positively modifying attitudes toward handicapped persons. • As a result of recent litigation, legislation, and the efforts of parent and professional advo-cates, the trend to integrate handicapped indi-viduals into the mainstream of society has increased dramatically (Novak & Heal, 1980). The philosophical fuel igniting this community integration movement is embodied in the nor-malization principle, which stresses service in environments and under circumstances that are as culturally normal as possible (Nirje, 1969