This paper presents the perspective of nondisabled people who do not stigmatize, stereotype, and reject those with obvious disabilities. We look at how nondisabled people who are in caring and accepting relationships with severely disabled others define them. Although the disabled people in these relationships sometimes drool, soil themselves, and do not talk or walk—traits that most would consider highly undesirable—they are accepted by the nondisabled people as valued and loved human beings. We look at four dimensions of the nondisabled people's perspective that helps maintain the humanness of the other in their minds: (1) attributing thinking to the other, (2) seeing individuality in the other, (3) viewing the other as reciprocating, and (4) defining social place for the other. The paper illustrates a less deterministic approach to the study of deviance, suggests that people with what are conventionally thought of as extremely negatively valued characteristics can have moral careers that lead to inclusion rather than exclusion, and argues that the study of acceptance needs to be added to the more common focus on rejection.

Relationships with Severely Disabled People: The Social Construction of Humanness

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The use of phenomenology for family therapy research: The search for meaning.

This article focuses on the criteria used by dog owners to define their animals as minded individuals with whom they maintain viable and satisfying social relationships. The discussion is based on ...

UNDERSTANDING DOGS: Caretakers' Attributions of Mindedness in Canine-Human Relationships

Sociological analyses of social interaction have been primarily directed toward human-to-human exchange. Recently, some have begun to actively question that stance. Challenges are found in new theoretical ideas and in empirical study—experimental, field, and survey data on people's attitudes and behaviors toward nonhumans. Such developments are leading many scholars to carve out a more central role for animals, objects, images, and both memories and projections of the self and others in the study of social interaction. In this article, I review these innovative ideas, pursuing four specific tasks. First, I briefly review the theoretical grounds that eliminated nonhumans from studies of social interaction. Next, I present new theories and empirical studies that construct a role for nonhumans in social interaction. Third, I review surveys that document popular perceptions of human/nonhuman interaction. I conclude by proposing some conceptual guidelines that might bring nonhumans into our contemporary analyt...

Nonhumans in Social Interaction

Even though qualitative methods are now recognized in the methodological literature, they are still regarded with skepticism by some methodologists, mainly those with statistical training. One reason for this skepticism concerns whether qualitative research results can be generalized, which is doubted not only because they are derived from only a few cases, but also because even where a larger number is studied these are generally selected without observing the rigorous criteria of statistical sampling theory. In this regard, the methodology textbooks still distinguish samples into two types: probability samples (simple random, systematic, proportional stratified, nonproportional stratified, multistage, cluster, area, and their various combinations), and non-probability ones (haphazard or convenience, quota, purposive, of the emblematic case, snowball, telephone)1. With regards the latter is stated:

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Re-Conceptualizing Generalization: Old Issues in a New Frame

Some families develop unusual or extreme versions of reality and sustain them in the face of a torrent of ostensibly discrediting and disconfirming information Although the psychological dynamics and functions of such shared constructions have been amply considered, little is known about the routine transactions through which these unusual versions of reality are created and maintained This paper examines the "reality work" of a family that attributed high levels of performance and competence to the severely retarded youngest child Observation of videotaped interaction between family members and the child revealed practices that presupposed, "documented," and sustained the family's version of the child's competence The practices are similar to those characteristic of interaction between adults and preverbal children The implications of this similarity for the analysis of cases of folie a famille are discussed

Lynn McDONALD‐WIKLER

Papers

The social construction of unreality: A case study of a family's attribution of competence to a severely retarded child.