Traits Attributed to Stuttering and Normally Fluent Males

Abstract

To determine if a stereotype of the “typical stutterer” exists and to identify possible differences in that stereotype due to exposure to stuttering, seven groups of subjects having a wide range of possible exposure to stutterers rated four hypothetical concepts (typical eight-year-old male, typical eight-year-old male stutterer, typical adult male, and typical adult male stutterer) on 25 scales arranged in a semantic differential format. These bipolar scales were derived from words previously judged by speech clinicians as descriptive of stutterers and antonyms of those words. It was concluded that a strong stereotype of a stutterer’s personal characteristics exists, that the stereotype is predominantly unfavorable, that the stereotype is essentially unaffected by amount of exposure to actual stutterers, and that the traits attributed to boys and men who stutter are similar. Some implications of the study are discussed.

Origins of the stuttering stereotype: Stereotype formation through anchoring–adjustment

“…A 25-item semantic differential scale (Woods & Williams, 1976) was employed in order to determine the ratings of a state disfluent male (α = 0.91), a trait stutterer (α = 0.90), and the typical male (α = 0.82). This scale utilizes Likert scales of bipolar adjectives separated by 7 points.…”

“…However, using hypothetical persons as examples has merit in that the ratings are not confounded by the perceptions of a specific individual who may be viewed as more or less attractive, friendly, boring, and so on. This allows for an examination of the stereotype as an abstract category, and has been used in numerous studies in the past (Doody et al, 1993;Dorsey & Guenther, 2000;Gabel, 2006;Lass et al, 1992Lass et al, , 1994White & Collins, 1984;Woods & Williams, 1976). The use of such categories does occur in daily life.…”

Stereotypes of stutterers and nonstutterers in three rural communities in Newfoundland

“…shown to exist among parents (Crowe & Cooper, 1977;Fowlie & Cooper, 1978;Woods & Williams, 1976), speech language clinicians Cooper & Rustin, 1985;Lass, Ruscello, Pannbacker, Schmitt, & Everly-Myers, 1989;Turnbaugh, Guitar, & Hoffman, 1979), students (St. Louis & Lass, 1981;White & Collins, 1984), store clerks (McDonald & Frick, 1954), teachers (Crowe & Cooper, 1977;Crowe & Walton, 1981;Lass, Ruscello, Schmitt, Pannbacker, Orlando, Dean, Ruziska, & Bradshaw), vocational rehabilitation counselors , and employers .…”

“…White and Collins (1984) attempted to identify the mechanism operating behind the stuttering stereotype. They had two groups of first year undergraduate students use the 25 rating scales developed by Woods and Williams (1976) to rate either a typical male stutterer or a normally fluent male who suddenly starts to stutter for a short period of time after which he speaks fluently again. According to White and Collins, the high positive correlation between their subjects ratings of a typical stutterer and a normal speaker with an episode of disfluent behavior implies that the genesis of the stereotype originates in the simple process of generalization.…”

“…The stuttering stereotype was examined with the semantic differential scale developed by Woods and Williams (1976) …”