A study of paraplegic eye contact behaviour in response to positive and negative feedback conditions

ABSTRACT

Eye contact behaviour of 62 paraplegics was examined during the reception of positive and negative feedback messages. There were 31 subjects in the positive feedback group and 30 in the negative feedback group. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relative efficacy of positive and negative feedback in improving the self-esteem of paraplegic subjects. Eye contact was used as a measurable index of self-esteem. Eye contact scores were obtained by subtracting each subject's eye contact duration score for the feedback interview and the eye contact duration score for the neutral interview from each other. This yielded the difference in eye contact - D.E.C. - Score. The result from this study indicated that paraplegic subjects with low esteem made significantly more eye contacts for positive feedback. It was concluded that self esteem of paraplegics could be improved by communicating positive rather than negative feedback to them