Honest and faked responses on the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale--Form A

Abstract

This study was completed by Dr Speakman while he was Associated Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe. At that time Andrew Tembo was a physical therapy student and Sarah Hendry was an occupational therapy student. In recent years there has been increased interest in the attitudes held towards disabled persons by physiotherapy students and physiotherapists. Research on this topic has been conducted in Canada, Australia, the USA, and South Africa. In every one of these studies the instrument used to measure attitudes was one of the three forms of the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scales (ATDPS). A major shortcoming of self-report scales such as the ATDPS is that they can often be faked. If the scales contain "transparent" statements, that is, statements to which the socially desirable answer is obvious or seems obvious, the subjects may be tempted to fake their responses. It is therefore important to determine if a self-report scale can be faked. Of the five studies that have been undertaken to determine if the ATDPS are fakeable, four have indicated that they are not, while one has demonstrated that they are. As it seems that the ATDPS will continue to be the instrument of choice in the measurement of attitudes toward disabled persons by physiotherapy students and physiotherapists, it is important that this question be resolved.