European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3759818 Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Güney Dengiz1i, Binnaz Kiran2 1Ministry of Education, Mersin, Turkey 2Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey Abstract: Using a conjoint analysis design, this study aims to examine the importance of disability type, disability level, age, gender, and ethnic origin of individuals with disabilities in the attitude/preference formation of school counselors working with students with disabilities. Two hundred and ninety-one school counselors working in Mersin and Gaziantep, two big cities in Turkey, participated in the study. The results show that the most important factor influencing the attitudes of school counselors is disability type, which is followed by disability level, and the age of the individual with the disability and that ethnic origin and gender are the least important factors. As far as the specific categories of these factors, an orthopetic disability for the disability type, a mild level of disability for the disability level, 7-12 age year range for the age, female for gender and no difference for the ethnic origin were found to result in the most positive attitudes. Furthermore, school counselors’ attitudes were found to be more positive toward individuals with disabilities of the same gender and formal education age. Keywords: attitudes, people with disabilities, school counselors, conjoint analysis 1. Introduction Throughout human history, differences have been perceived as a diversion from the typical, and individuals have carried this as a stigma. Undoubtedly, one of the groups affected by stigmatization is individuals with disabilities (Goffman, 2014). Values and customs that have existed since common life culture developed have classified people with disabilities as people who should be shown mercy (Akbulut, 2012). Low expectations toward individuals with disabilities persist in communities, struggles have not had a sufficient effect, and individuals with disabilities are deprived of the rights and i Correspondence: email [email protected] Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2020 Open Access Publishing Group 254 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES opportunities that would allow them to be perceived as independent individuals capable of fulfilling their duties and responsibilities (Burcu, 2015). According to Disabled People’s International (DPI, 1993), disability comprises “the physical and social barriers causing individuals not to reach or to reach limitedly to the equal level with others in normal life of society.” Therefore, structural changes should be made for individuals to function fully in the physical environment and to have access to education and employment. According to Şişman (2014), the role of education is important in providing these changes in terms of the effective attendance and independence of individuals with disabilities. Emphasizing that students with disabilities are limited in their personal and social skills, Myers (2005) stated that school counsellors should attend to the non-academic needs of students with disabilities, such as social and personal skills. According to Owens, Thomas and Strong (2011), school counselors are responsible for ensuring that students with disabilities become productive and better-adjusted adults. Noting that supporting and defending students with disabilities is an obligation for school counselors, Milson (2002) suggested the need to teach students with disabilities how to defend themselves and their rights in addition to providing them with protection. Professional organizations also make decisions about these matters. The American School Counselor Association states that “school counselors devote themselves to all students’ realizing their potential and meeting or developing academic standards regardless of the difficulties resulting from disabilities and other special needs” (ASCA, 2013). The issue of disability was also emphasized in the Book of Ethical Rules of the Turkish Psychological Counselling and Guidance Association (2011). The results of studies examining attitudes toward students with disabilities and counselors together showed that those who have the most positive attitude toward students with disabilities are students who attend rehabilitation counselling programs and school counselling programs (Thomas, Curtis & Shippen, 2011) and that the attitudes of counselors with previous experience of and information about people with disabilities are more positive compared to those without (Carney & Cobia, 1994; Polat, 2001; Alver, Bozgeyikli & Işıklar, 2011; Çimşir & Carney, 2016). In addition, developing cooperation with family and teachers and counselling has been highlighted among the services provided by counselors to students with disabilities (Çimşir & Carney, 2016). Studies on attitudes toward people with disabilities and the prevention of negativities began during the last half century (Akbulut, 2012). It is now known that what determines what individuals with disabilities can do is the meaning attributed to them by society and that these meanings cause ongoing judgment (Burcu, 2015).Previous studies have addressed the difficulties that people with disabilities experience in fields such as education, health, law, participation in social activities, inclusion in society, and access to information and across attitudes and conceptions that establish barriers to people with disabilities potentially being noticed (Altıparmak and Sarı, 2012; Burcu, 2011; Kaner et al., 2009; İşbilir et al., 2010). Negative attitudes in society toward people with disabilities affect the successful rehabilitation of these individuals by “forming an invisible wall” (Wong, Chan, Cardoso, Lam & Miller, 2004). Regardless of their professional European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 255 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES competence, as long as people continue to regard people with disabilities with different, negative, limited and restricted expectations, they will fail to integrate them into society (Özyürek, 2013). Therefore, the attitudes of experts who provide services for people with disabilities take priority in terms of yielding these services. There are many studies in the literature that measure attitudes toward people with disabilities. Some of them have established that attitudes toward people with disabilities differ according to the type of disability. It is noteworthy that participants have a more positive attitude toward people with orthopedic disabilities and a more negative attitude toward those with mental disabilities (Bowman, 1987; Choi & Lam, 2001; Furnham & Pendred, 1983). When these results are considered together with a conjoint analysis, it can be seen that general “disability”-based factors have higher importance than “demographic” factors in forming attitudes toward people with disabilities (Wang et al., 2003; Wong et al., 2004; Tsang, Chan & Chan, 2004; Rosenthal, Chan & Liyneh, 2006; Parashar, Chan & Leirerer, 2008). It seems that the most important factor among these is disability type. Moreover, studies reveal that attitudes toward people with disabilities differ across different social contexts (Wong et al., 2004) and different characteristics (Rosenthal, Chan & Livneh, 2006). In studies examining attitudes toward people with disabilities, attitudes are measured using different direct (Furnham & Penderd, 1983; Forlin, 1995; Choi & Lam, 2001; Lifshitz & Glaubman, 2002; Alghazo & Gaad, 2004) and indirect (Wang, Thomas, Chan & Cheing, 2003; Tsang, Chan & Chan, 2004; Wong et al., 2004) methods and techniques. However, important problems occur in situations where attitudes are measured directly. Considering that attitudes toward people with disabilities are multidimensional (Bowman, 1987), they can change according to social context (Grand, Bernier & Strohmer, 1982; Aizen, 2005; Wright, 1988), and because they can be affected by social desirability as a source of error in attitude studies (Keller & Siegrist, 2010; Thomas et al., 2011; Kim, Lu & Hernandez, 2015), various methods of measuring attitudes are required. In this context, as in market research, conjoint analysis has begun to garner attention in terms of measuring attitudes toward people with disabilities. Conjoint analysis is used in this study, which is the first study in this field in Turkey to be based on this method. Detailed information about conjoint analysis is provided below. 1.1 Conjoint Analysis First developed by Luce and Tukey (1964), this analysis method assumes the best estimation of preferences about an issue by people with regard to the characteristics that constitute that issue (Orme, 2010). Widely used in market research, this method is a multivariate method of analysis of the preferences of participants toward a product or service (Hair, Black, Babin & Anderson, 2014). According to Chan, Livneh, Pruett, Wang and Zheng (2009), the state of “people and characteristics they have” as an important factor is neglected through the emphasis on only “disability classifications” (e.g., visually disabled) in traditional studies on the hierarchical sorting of attitudes toward people with disabilities. In these studies, European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 256 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES participants are asked to sort their preferences based on a single characteristic (i.e., disability type). Conjoint analysis of attitudes toward people with disabilities provides researchers with an opportunity to understand the factors that contribute to forming attitudes toward people with disabilities using many factors and different social contexts (Chan et al., 2009). Conjoint analysis uses multidimensional measurements by including many factors that prevent social desirability. Furthermore, it uses indirect measurements, asks participants to make a choice and adopts an attitude measurement that includes different social contexts using real-life situations via scenarios. In this context, conjoint analysis provides a more realistic and holistic result because it affords the opportunity to evaluate participants’ preferences toward individuals with disabilities within different social contexts and uses more than one characteristic of people with disabilities (Wong et al., 2004). Conjoint analysis produces results that are more realistic, more concrete, more acceptable and less affected by social desirability error than traditional measurements (Shamir & Shamir, 1995). Analysis after the process is applied to respondents in conjoint analysis produces two findings: part worth scores and relative importance scores (Dinç, 2010). In examining attitudes toward people with disabilities, importance scores show how important the factors at hand are in forming attitudes, and part worth scores show the attitudes of participants toward the levels of any factor (Chan et al., 2009). As a measurement tool, conjoint analysis enables one to take into account many factors and many levels holistically and can present the combinations obtained from these factors and their levels in terms of attitudes toward people with disabilities via different scenarios and social contexts. Attitude is a "tendency" to have the elements of a "feeling", "idea", or "behavior" toward an attitude object rather than the elements themselves (Kağıtçıbaşı, 2014). In this regard, measurement tools to measure attitudes attempt to assess this "tendency." This tendency may also appear in decision-making and choice processes (Sanbonmatsu et al.). The attitudes we hold guide our decision-making process and shape our choices. Accordingly, the attitudes a person has are evaluated through the "choices" s/he makes in measurements made with conjoint analysis. In the international literature, it is possible to find studies that examine important factors in attitudes toward people with disabilities using conjoint analysis (Wong et al., 2004; Tsang, et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2003; Rosenthal, Chan & Livneh, 2006; Parashar, Chan & Leierer, 2008). However, when the literature in Turkey is studied, no studies examining attitudes toward people with disabilities using conjoint analysis are found. This study will enrich the literature with a new method used in Turkey for the first time. This study also demonstrates how to measure both similarities and differences in attitudes and preferences using conjoint analysis. Furthermore, this study reveals that the method can be considered for testing the suitability of criteria for services for people with disabilities and developing policies to choose and evaluate specialists who work with people with disabilities. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 257 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Thus, this study aims to examine the importance of the factors at hand in forming the attitudes of counselors, especially with regard to the educational services they offer to individuals with disabilities, as a determinant factor in integrating these individuals into society, working with them and examining their attitudes toward the factor levels. 2. Method 2.1 Research Model This research presents a descriptive study using conjoint analysis, a method with its own application steps. According to Wong et al. (2004), conjoint measurement is an indirect method of measuring attitudes and forces individuals to make a choice. In other words, it is one of the indirect methods used in studying attitudes toward people with disabilities. 2.2 Study Group The convenience sampling method was used in this study to determine the study group. A total of 291 school counselors, 78 from Mersin and 213 from Gaziantep, composed the study group, which included 175 women and 116 men; 264 were psychological guidance and counseling graduates, and 27 graduated from philosophy and sociology departments; 211 were 21-30 years old, and 80 were more than 31 years old. 2.3 Data Collection Tools A. Personal Information Form Demographic data on the participants were collected using a personal information form prepared by the researchers. B. Conjoint Analysis The design of the conjoint analysis used in this study was prepared by the researchers and is presented below. 2.4 Design of Conjoint Analysis Five steps were used for the conjoint analysis compound in preparing the design steps of this research. These steps are as follows: A. Determining the characteristics of students with disabilities Five factors thought to be important in attitudes toward students with disabilities (disability type, disability level, age, gender and ethnic origin) were included in this study. In determining the process of these factors, factors formerly considered important in the related literature and frequently used in studying attitudes toward people with disabilities with conjoint analysis were used. The factors included in the study and their levels are as follows: a) Disability type: visually impaired, mentally disabled, orthopedically disabled and hearing impaired; European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 258 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES b) Disability level: mild, moderate and severe; c) Age: 0-6, 7-12, 13-17, and 18 years and older; d) Gender: female and male; and e) Ethnic origin: same ethnic origin as the counselor or ethnic origin does not matter. Disability type factors are orthopedically disabled, visually impaired, mentally disabled and hearing impaired. Although there are types of disabilities other than these four types, some priorities were established because an increase in the number of factors and levels will decrease the reliability and validity. First, these factors should be included in the official Ministry of National Education schools. The second priority is related to the prevalence of these disabilities in Turkey. The most common types of disability in Turkey are orthopedically disabled (1.25%), visually impaired (0.60%), mentally disabled (0.48%), speech and language impaired (0.38%) and hearing impaired (0.37%). Although language and speech difficulties have a higher frequency than hearing impairment, 10.31% of this frequency is composed of hearing impaired and 10.49% is composed of mentally disabled (OZIDA & TUIK). Hence, hearing impairment was chosen. There are similar limitations to ethnicity. In Turkey, there are many individuals who belong to several different ethnic groups (KONDA, 2006; Alp & Taştan, 2011). Including all ethnic groups in a survey is nearly impossible, and including only a few ethnic groups is thought to be unethical. Therefore, the ethnic group factor was limited to "from the same ethnic group as me" and "the ethnic group makes no difference to me." B. Determining preference functions As the preference function for the defined levels, the “partial benefit model,” assuming factor levels with a preference rate independent of each other, was determined. C. Data collection method The data collection method used in this study was the “full profile” method, which provides participants with trial combinations of all characteristics and levels. Trial combinations in terms of the variables and levels defined according to the full profile method comprised 4(i)x3(ii)x4(iii)x(2iv)x2(v)=192 hypothetical cards; participants cannot possibly evaluate so many cards. Therefore, using orthogonal design made with statistical packaged software, 16 analysis cards for the defined variables and levels and 4 holdout cards were prepared. The characteristics and levels of these cards, which were created according to the full profile method, were presented to participants both orally and in written form, and the sorting level preference scale was used in the collected data. A sample of the contents of the cards created using orthogonal design is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1: Sample of the Cards Created Using Orthogonal Design Disability Type Disability Level Age Gender Ethnic Origin Hearing impaired Severe 7 - 12 Male Same ethnic origin as counselor European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 259 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES D. Preparing the script The script below was prepared for the study and used in its application: "You begin to provide psychological counseling and guidance services in a school serving students with disabilities, and your directors ask you to define which individuals you would like to work with. Evaluate each card given to you as ‘an individual with a disability’ and sort these cards starting from the most desirable individual to work with to the least desirable to work with, putting the most desirable profile on top.” E. Determining the study group and obtaining preference data Explanations regarding characteristics and levels were given to 386 participating school counselors individually and in groups of 5 interviews using 16 analysis cards together with 4 scrambled holdout cards. It is necessary for data with weak agreement scores among participants to be excluded from the analysis process (Hair et al., 2014). Therefore, 95 datapoints showing weak correlation in agreement scores calculated for both analysis and holdout cards were extracted from the data analysis, and the preference ordering of 291 school counselors was used in the findings. The participants were asked to order the 20 prepared cards from the most desirable to the least desirable by evaluating the script provided. 2.5 Data Analysis The steps below were followed in the data analysis: 1) The preference order of the participants was transferred into a computer program, and the proportional importance values of each characteristic and part worth scores for each level were calculated. 2) To establish the credibility and validity of the model set, agreement for both analysis and holdout cards was calculated using Kendall’s tau. 3) Differences between the relative importance scores were determined using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. 4) Ten comparisons emerged from the binary comparison of factors. To prevent first- type error (a non-existent finding appears to exist) in multiple comparison situations, Bonferroni correction (Armstrong, 2014) was applied, and the meaningfulness levels of the findings were reduced from p<0.05 to p<0.005 (p<0.05/10=0.005). 4. Findings 4.1 Findings about the Importance of Disability Type, Disability Level, Age, Gender and Ethnic Origin in the Formation of Attitudes of School Counselors toward Working with Individuals with Disabilities Relative importance scores for the factors and part worth scores for the factor levels are presented in Table 1. In addition, rankings showing the most positive and least positive factor levels are given. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 260 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Table 1: Relative Importance and Part Worth Scores of Factors in the Attitude Formation of Counselors toward Working with Individuals with Disabilities Factor Relative Importance Part Worth Rank Score Score Disability Type 43.922 Mental -2.458 4 Hearing -.143 3 Visual .803 2 Orthopedic 1.798 1 Disability Level 36.851 Severe -3.196 3 Moderate .380 2 Mild 2.816 1 Age 10.611 0-6 -.068 4 7-12 .071 1 13-17 .010 2 18 and Above -.014 3 Gender 3.352 Female .059 1 Male -.059 2 Ethnic Origin 5.265 Same -.229 2 Does Not Matter .229 1 Pearson’s R : .998, p<0.001 Kendall’s tau : 1.000, p<0.001 Kendall’s tau for holdouts : 1.000, p<0.05 In Table 1, Kendall’s tau value (p<0.001) indicates the consistency of the model for predicting the preference evaluations. Again, when Kendall’s tau value (p<0.05) for holdout cards, calculated as the consistency between the observed and predicted preference orderings, is considered, the model set can be said to be consistent and valid. Accordingly, subdimensions of each factor are studied in terms of part worth scores. According to this, a) the disability types for which participants have the most positive attitude are orthopedically disabled (1.798), visually impaired (803) and hearing impaired (- .143). The disability type for which they have the least positive attitude is mentally disabled (-2.458); b) the disability levels for which participants have the most positive attitude are mild (2.816), moderate (.380) and severe (-3.196); c) the age levels for which participants have the most positive attitudes are 7-12 (.071), 13-17 (0.10), 18 and above (-.014) and 0-6 years (-.068); European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 261 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES d) participants have a more positive attitude toward women (.059) than toward men; and e) participants have more positive attitudes toward counsellors with an indifference to ethnic origin. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to study the differences between the relative importance scores of these factors, and the factors were compared dyadically. Table 2: Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test Findings of Differences between Relative Importance Scores of Factors in the Formation of Attitudes toward School Counselors Working with Individuals with Disabilities Disability Age Gender Ethnic Age Gender Ethnic Gender Ethnic Ethnic Level - - - Origin - - - Origin - - Origin Origin Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Age - - Type Type Type Type Level Level Level Age Gender Z -3.351 -13.301 -14.621 -13.714 -13.240 -14.610 -13.561 -12.502 -10.055 -.639 P .001 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .523 According to Table 2, a) disability type is more important than all other factors; disability level is more important than age, gender and ethnic origin; and age is more important than gender and ethnic origin; and b) gender and ethnic origin are similar to each other in terms of importance but are less important than all other factors. Therefore, with the exception of the comparison of ethnic origin and gender, a meaningful difference between the other factors in terms of relative importance scores can be seen (p<0,005). 3.2. Findings about the Importance of Disability Type, Disability Level, Age, Gender and Ethnic Origin Factors in the Formation of Attitudes of School Counselors with Different Genders toward Working with Individuals with Disabilities The relative importance scores of factors and part worth scores of factor levels according to participant gender are presented in Table 3. In addition, ordering by the most and least positive factor levels among all factor levels is included. In Table 3, Kendall’s tau value (p<0.001) indicates the consistency of the model for predicting preference evaluations and shows the consistency of the model in terms of both male and female participants. When Kendall’s tau value (p<0.05) for holdout cards, calculated as the consistency between observed and predicted preferences orderings, is considered, the model set can be said to be a consistent and valid model for both male and female participants. In this context, the subdimensions of each factor are studied in terms of part worth scores. When all participants are considered, results similar to the first finding are obtained. Additionally, when gender is considered, there is no difference between male and female participants in terms of disability type and disability level, and in terms of disability type, the most positive attitude is toward the orthopedically disabled and the mild level. For age, female participants have the most positive attitude toward working with students with disabilities in the following age order: 0-6 (.061), 7- European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 262 Güney Dengiz, Binnaz Kiran CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS TOWARD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 12 (0.53) and 13-17 (-.011) years, with the least positive attitude for ages 18 years and above (-.068). Male participants have the most positive attitude toward working with students with disabilities in the following age order: 18 and above (.121), 13-17 (.099) and 7-12 (.043) years, with the least positive attitude from ages 0-6 (-.243) years. Furthermore, female and male participants are observed to have a more positive attitude toward individuals with disabilities of the same gender. Table 3: Relative Importance and Part Worth Scores of School Counselors by Gender Regarding the Factors Studied Male Female Factor and Levels Relative Part Rank Relative Part Worth Rank Importance Worth Importance Score Score Score Score Disability Type 42.370 44.951 Mental -2.265 4 -2.586 4 Hearing -.293 3 -.044 3 Visual .677 2 .887 2 Orthopedic 1.881 1 1.743 1 Disability Level 37.709 36.282 Severe -3.228 3 -3.174 3 Moderate .423 2 .351 2 Mild 2.805 1 2.824 1 Age 10.603 10.616 0-6 -.263 4 .061 1 7-12 .043 3 .053 2 13-17 .099 2 -.011 3 18 and Above .121 1 -.103 4 Gender 3.352 3.305 Female -.098 2 .163 1 Male .098 1 -.163 2 Ethnic Origin 5.895 4.847 Same -.230 2 -.229 2 Does Not Matter .230 1 .229 1 Pearson’s R : .998, p<0.001 .998, p<0.001 Kendall’s tau : .979, p<0.001 .967, p<0.001 Kendall’s tau for holdouts : 1.000, p<.05 1.000, p<0.05 The Wilcoxon signed rank test for both females and males was used to study differences between the relative importance scores, and the factors were compared dyadically. The results of the comparisons are shown in Table 4. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 7 │ Issue 3 │ 2020 263