An Investigation of Tolerance for Ambiguity and Attitudes toward the Disabled under Conditions of Variated Stimulus and Situational Ambiguity

The study has a dual purpose over and above the immediate goal of accepting or rejecting the experimental hypothesis. First, is has been designed to organize and explain conflicting, incomplete and isolated reports in the areas of research focusing on attitude toward disability and intolerance of ambiguity. It seeks to provide an empirical basis for a theoretical framework around which a logical, comprehensive and consistent theory of attitudes toward the disabled person may be built. By utilizing a research framework based on Helson\u27s Adaptation Level Theory (Helson, 1956) it is possible to look at the total range of variables affecting attitudes toward the disabled person: the effects of the disability itself, the effects of the situation in which the interaction between disabled and non-disabled persons occurs, and the effect of the individual determinants which the non-disabled individual brings to the interaction