Examining the associations between endorsement of disability models and system justification within disabled and non-disabled Individuals

Despite the influence of oppression on the lives of persons with disabilities, disability studies concepts are underrepresented in psychological research. The aim of this study was to examine how endorsement of different models of disability relate to general systems justification beliefs and how this association may be moderated by one’s disability self-identification. The results demonstrated that higher levels of systems justification beliefs were positively and negatively correlated with endorsement of the medical and social models of disability respectively. When controlling for endorsement of the medical model, we found an interaction between disability status and endorsement of the social model of disability in predicting systems justification attitudes. Additionally, our analysis presented a negative interaction between disability status and endorsement of the social model in predicting systems justification attitudes among non-disabled respondents, but not respondents with disabilities. Our study highlights the crucial need for future research into the application of systems justification theory to critical disability studies and into social identity research.