College Students' Meaning Structure of Images of Blind Students and Deaf Students : Gender and Major Field

Abstract

The present study investigated the meaning structure of images (MSI) that college students have of blind students and deaf students. When 108 physical education majors and 137 education majors were asked to write descriptive qualifiers for each of the following concepts: "Blind Students," "Deaf Students," "Favorite Male Students," "Favorite Female Students," "Students with High Grades," and "Myself," this free association method resulted in 2686 qualifiers. My colleagues and I selected 43 of these on the basis of their frequency and their relevancy to the stimulus concepts. Analysis via the Quantification Theory III model indicated that the meaning structure of images about "Blind Students" were similar to that about "Deaf Students," whereas the meaning structure of images about "Students with Disabilities" were the opposite of those about "Favorite Students" and "Students with High Grades." Differences on the concepts of "Students with Disabilities" and "Favorite Female Students" were found between the male and female students, and between the education and physical education majors.