Revisiting the mine/thine problem: a sensitizing exercise for clinic, classroom, and attributional research.

Objective: Two studies revisit a sensitivity exercise designed to heighten awareness of the social psychology of disability. The "mine/thine problem" (Wright, 1975) is an imagination exercise where one's own (self-defined) disability is paired with a different disability. Participants imagine whether they would prefer to retain their disability or to exchange it for the other.

Method: Study 1 (N = 52) was a conceptual replication, while Study 2 (N = 50) paired participants' own disabilities with one independently rated as more or less severe. Study 2 participants also completed the Scale of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons (SADP; Antonak & Livneh, 1988) 3 times: 1 week before participation, immediately after, and 2 weeks later.

Results: Replicating Wright (1975), participants retained their own disabilities (78% in Study 1, 90% in Study 2); varying the paired disabilities' severity had no effect on preference in Study 2, where, compared with pretest scores, participants expressed more favorable attitudes on the 2 posttest assessments of the SADP.

Conclusions: The exercise sensitizes participants to insider (people with disabilities) and outsider (nondisabled) perspectives, leading to more favorable attitudes toward disability. Rehabilitation psychologists will benefit by revisiting and using this perspective-broadening exercise in clinic, classroom, and research settings.