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Jane Pawluk Memorial Lecture Appearance matters – Disfigurement confidence for all National Association of Disability Practitioners Nottingham, 3 July 2009. A. Overview B. Supporting a student who has a disfigurement C. Disfigurement confidence for all D. Questions…. A. Overview.
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Jane Pawluk Memorial Lecture • Appearance matters – • Disfigurement confidence for all • National Association of Disability Practitioners • Nottingham, 3 July 2009
A. Overview • B. Supporting a student who has • a disfigurement • C. Disfigurement confidence for all • D. Questions…
Challenging… Across cultures and throughout history villains have been associated with disfigurements. This has led to the assumption that a person with a facial difference will be frightening or sinister. … our expectation that heroes and heroines are conventionally good looking
The First Lesson… “Hey – look at that man – What’s the matter with his nose?” “Hey look at that girl – Why is her face like that?”
Looking and being looked at Looking is a social activity Stage 1 - …observational dyads… Stage 2 - …joint activity dyads… Stage 3 - …differentiated and enduring feelings for one another (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)
“It’s the inside that counts.” “We’re all the same underneath.” “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.”
Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies (Cerrie Burnell) may scare the kids because of her disability? • I didn't want to let my children watch … … I know it would have played on my eldest daughter's mind and possibly caused sleep problems.
CBeebies controller Michael Carrington said she is warm and natural… "We think that in time all mums and dads and children will love her as much as we do."
Miss Burnell was disappointed by the criticism but welcomed the discussion. "It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk disability with their children," she said. "It just goes to show how important it is to have positive disabled role models on CBeebies and television in general."
B. Supporting a student who has • a disfigurement
Social avoidance loss of major sourse of well-being (Kellet, 2002) Self-esteem number of positive social experiences per day (Bull and Rumsey, 1988)
Acknowledge initial response(comment, question or hesitant approach) Move the subject on smoothly Give brief explanation ‘Having something to say’ • This is a key social skill to enable a person with a disfigurement to manage other people’s reactions.
Impact of Social Skills on Social Perceptions Person with unusual appearance Person with ordinary appearance 1 Very Favourably 2 Fairly Favourably Person with good social skills 4 Very Unfavourably 3 Fairly Unfavourably Person with poor social skills (Bull and Rumsey, 1998)
Responses to disfigurement ‘Stickiness’ in interactions(Davis, 1961) ‘Even though others may not consciously intend to treat a person differently or less favourably when they are facially disfigured, almost all people do, especially upon first meeting them’ (Kleck and Strenta (1980) 9 out of 10 people find it hard to link positive words and phrases to images of people with disfigurement (Goode, 2008)
The First Lesson… “Hey – look at that man – What’s the matter with his nose?” “Hey look at that girl – Why is her face like that?”
“I guess that’s just the way his nose is. Look at my nose. It’s kind of ………………………………………. What’s your nose like?” “That’s the way her face is. My face is kind of ………………………. ………………………………… What’s your face like?”
Disfigurement confidence for all - summary Raise awareness of unwitting negative mindsets around appearance and disfigurement Provide opportunities to increase appearance confidence and inner-awareness for all Promote really good social skills for each and every encounter
Bibliography Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Bull, R. and Rumsey, N. (1988) The Social Psychology of Facial Appearance, New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Davis, F. (1961) Deviance disavowal: The management of strained interaction by the visibly handicapped. Social Problems, 9, p120-132 Goode, A. (2008) Disfigurement IAT Research presented at MRS conference, 2008, now being prepared for publication. Kellet, S. (2002) Shame Fused Acne. (p135-154) Ed: Gilbert, P. and Miles, J. Body Shame: Conceptualisation, Research and Treatment Hove: Brunner-Routledge Kleck and Strenta (1980) quoted in R.Bull and N.Rumsey (1988) The social psychology of facial appearance, New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
