The Social Representation of the Deaf: A Sociocognitive Study of Discourse

ABSTRACT The main objective of this article is to specify and analyze the categories that (re)construct the social representation (SR) of the deaf within the discourse of the social group itself. We view SR as an amalgam of several skills that guide and enable the subject-subject, subject-object and subject-world interactions. The discourse intermediates the relationship between the subject’s cognition and the society. We defend the importance of this research because, on a daily basis, many discriminatory practices involve the group and are naturalized, in part, due to lack of knowledge about the deaf and associated issues. In an incipient knowledge field, we are proposing to explore the discursive language marks which spin around socially prejudiced practices naturalized in a mostly hearing society. Through semi-structured interviews, we concluded that deaf people resort to three main discursive strategies to re(construct) a positive SR about the ingroup while at the same time deconstructing a negative SR (re)built by the outgroup.