SOCIAL PERCEPTION TOWARDS
DISABLED PEOPLE IN ROMANIAN SOCIETY
Vasilica Stamatin, MSC in Psychology
Ph.D. student in Sociology
Babes-Bolyai University,Cluj, Romania
After the Romanian revolution in 1989, people with
disabilities were finally seen in the community.

The communists induced the idea that it is
shameful to have a family member with a
disability.
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Most of the disabled people were hidden,
abandoned in hellish institutions and treated
worse than animals.
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The aim of this study was to research the
present perception of disability in Romanian
society.
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There are very few studies regarding disability in
Romania
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The research was focused especially on period after
2007, when Romania joined E.U.
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Desirability became a very dangerous estate among
Romanian citizens that could lead to tokenism and
covered disablism.
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The research was focused on implicit and explicit
perception towards disabled people.
Central research question:
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What is the present social perception towards disabled
people in Romanian society?
Secondary research questions:
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Is the Romanian social perception towards disabled
people related to medical model or to social model of
disability?

Is there a difference between implicit and explicit
Romanian social perception towards disabled people?
 Qualitative approach
 Exploratory research
 Phenomenological methodology
• the researcher cannot be detached from his own presuppositions and should not
pretend otherwise (Hammersley, 2000).
• the phenomenologist are concerned with understanding social and psychological
phenomena from the perspectives of people involved (Welman and Kruger, 1999, p.
189).
 Epistemological position:
• data were contained within the perspectives of people that are involved with
disabled people in daily activities
•I define a positive attitude towards disability any perception, attitude, behavior, or
belief related to social model of disability- data were analyzed from this perspective
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Sampling:
• 26 disabled people, aged between 14-76 years old, different
professions and different levels of education were interviewed.
• “Who are the people that you meet most often daily and that you
are interested in their attitude towards you and your disability?”
• Over 50 % answers indicated people between school-age and very
old age, having the following professions: pupils, students, clinicians,
nurses, social workers, retired people, priests, solicitors, notaries,
sales people, taxi and bus drivers, policemen, waiters, teachers,
accounters, plumbers, cleaners, other public services people.
• Snowballing method
• 85 participants covering all targeted professional areas, age range
and from the most important 5 Romanian regions: Moldavia, Ardeal,
Banat, Regat and Dobrogea.
 Methods:
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phenomenological in-depth semi structured interviews
focus groups interviews
mind mapping
guided empathy in disability
memoing or field notes
of the data-Hycner’s (1999)
explicitation process:
 Explicitation



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Bracketing and phenomenological reduction.
Delineating units of meaning.
Clustering of units of meaning to form themes
Summarizing each interview, validating it and where necessary modifying
it.
Extracting general and unique themes from all the interviews and making
a composite summary.
Cognitive dissonance theory (Leon Festinger, 1957), concept of
habitus (Pierre Bourdieu, 1994), hermeneutics (Hans-Georg Gadamer,
1960), sociological imagination (C.Wright Milles, 1959), spread
phenomenon (Dembo et. al., 1956).
Mind map, I.T. 66 years old,
teacher

“If I would be Cristina (disabled person), I am not sure if I would like
to live anymore. She’s loved by her family, but I assume they are
shame to go out with her”. (interview, C.D., 25 years old, nurse)

“...and that person, ALTHOUGH he was a wheel chair user, denied
everything they [the colleagues] were supposing about him,
proving eventually that he had a strong personality and, TO
EVERYBODY’S AMAZEMENT, he was professionally even better
than many of our normal colleagues”. (Interview, I.P., 46 years old,
prosecutor)
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“They (disabled people) have a hard life, because they can’t earn
money by being employed, and they need care specialists to keep
an eye on them all the time… Sometimes you are amazed to see
how a disabled person is coping with a difficult job. If I would be
disabled I would feel the need to work ten times harder, to prove
everybody that I am not under their level!...” (interview, P.G., 58,
accountant)
Central themes:
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The big difference between being born disabled and getting an impairment through
an accident or a disease
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Family as a vital support in living with a disability
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The poverty of disabled people in Romania increased by the economic crisis
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The disabled beggars and their enormous influence on negative social perception.
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Bucharest underground , trains, railway stations and busses disabled beggars
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disabled beggars across Europe
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disabled beggars actors
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Isolation of disabled people or institutionalization (as protective measures), abusive
behaviors, financial advantages of poor families with disabled members
Media as an important influence factor in building social perspectives towards
disability
Results:
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Central research question – the social perception towards disabled people in
Romanian society is still a negative one, based on prejudice, stigma and
compassion.
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First research question – 91% of participants’ perception is congruent with
the medical model of disability. 9%, whose perception was correspondent to
social model of disability was almost exclusively formed by professionals
working with disabled people.
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Second research question – no significant difference between explicit and
implicit perception towards disabled people in Romanian society (different
declarative and implicit perceptions were situated under 7%).
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The results revealed that:
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The social model is almost unknown among Romanians
Spread phenomenon determine the assessment of disabled people capabilities
The negative attitude and behavior due to wrong approach determined by low
level of knowledge related with disability.
Conclusions:
 The social perception towards disabled people in
nowadays Romanian society is still a perception based
on the medical model of disability.
 There are no significant evidences that Romanians
have different implicit and explicit perceptions about
disabled people.
 Even if Romanian people is a loving and
compassionate nation, people still don’t have enough
knowledge about disability and about social model of
disability, and they fail in practicing a positive attitude
towards disability.
References
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Bourdieu,P. (1994)( Practical reason: on the theory of action, Stanford
University press, Stanford California, 1998)
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Dembo,T.(1969).Rehabilitation psychology and its immediate future: A
problem of utilization of psychological knowledge. Rehabilitation
Psychology,16, 63-72.
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Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method,1960.
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Hycner, R. H. (1999). Some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of
interview data. In A. Bryman & R. .G. Burgess (Eds.), Qualitative research
(Vol. 3, pp. 143-164). London: Sage.

Mills, C.W., (1959), The Sociological Imagination, 'The Promise', Chapter 1,
p.5.
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Welman, J. C., & Kruger, S. J. (1999). Research methodology for the
business and administrative sciences. Johannesburg, South Africa:
International Thompson.
Contact information:
VASILICA STAMATIN
MSC in Psychology
Ph.D. student in Sociology
Babes-Bolyai University,Cluj, Romania
vasilica.stamatin@gmail.com