Abstract

NUNES, Leila Regina d'Oliveira de Paula et al. What do thesis and dissertations reveal about the self-perception of people with special needs?. Temas psicol. [online]. 2002, vol.10, n.2, pp. 136-153. ISSN 1413-389X.

The way people with special needs view the world is rarely considered by the society in general as well as by the educational practices. An analysis of the scientific production of graduate programs in Education and Psychology showed 22 master thesis and doctoral dissertations where these individuals were invited to express their feelings about themselves and their own lives. The subjects were children, teenagers, and adults with mental, physical, sensorial or multiple handicaps, as well as gifted abilities. Free and semi-structured interviews were used to collect participants' verbalizations, which were marked by the stigma. Subjects reported that their self images were directly connected to the way others perceive them and shaped by stereotypes. The consequential exclusion of this population from the main social relations establishes a remarkable existential limitation

Keywords : people with special needs; self perception; view of the world; stigma.

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