Perceptions of Stutterers and Nonstutterers During Speaking and Nonspeaking Situations

Abstract
An examination of how the general public views a hypothetical adult male stutterer and a nonstutterer in speaking situations versus nonspeaking situations was undertaken. The desire was to determine if the previously reported negative stuttering stereotype is pervasive to nonspeaking behavior or is specific to the stutterer as a speaker only. One hundred and eight respondents from a telephone survey who agreed to receive, complete, and return a questionnaire served as participants. Participants received two 25-item semantic differential test scales (Woods & Williams, 1976) requesting either evaluation of a typical normal adult male and a typical adult male stutterer when speaking in everyday situations or a typical normal adult male and a typical adult male stutterer in everyday life when not involved in speaking situations. Nonstatistically significant ( p > .002) differences were found in stereotypes, as reflected in mean differences between scale items, for the speaking versus nonspeaking situation among stutterers or nonstutterers. Statistically significant ( p < .002) mean differences on 19 of 25 scale items were found between stutterers and nonstutterers for the data collapsed across speaking and nonspeaking situations. The findings of the present study suggest that the saliency and vividness of the behavior is so powerful that character traits attributed to the stuttering moment transcend speaking situations.

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