-387). Regardless of the age of onset though, hearing loss can have a "significant impact on all other areas of life, compounding other age-related physiological, psychological, and socioenvironmental problems" (Magilvy, 1985, pp. 140-143). Rainer and associates (cited in Steinberg, 1991, pp. 380-387) described deaf people as being unruly, impulsive, nonempathic, and noninsightful. Similarly, Altshuler (cited in Steinberg, 1991, pp. 380-387) also noted increased impulsive behavior among the hearing-impaired. In fact, the researcher hypothesized that audition might actually be necessary for the internalized control of rage. Perhaps, it is more accurate, however, to characterize deaf people as a heterogenous population which has been subject to various, and sometimes inappropriate, generalizations.
As a whole, the deaf community refers to all those people who employ a common language, American Sign Language. Membership within this community depends less on the individual's degree of hearing loss, and more on their identification with deaf culture. Several studies have observed that hearing-impaired persons as a group may have difficulty "acquiring appropriate social behaviors" (Rasing & Duker, 1993, pp. 362-369). Compared to the hearing population, deaf adults are generally less well educated, more often underemployed, and typically have lower incomes. Moreover, such tendencies may be most prevalent among deaf women. Over the last several years, the literature on deaf adults has referred to "'double-stereotyping', a 'double handicap', 'double-pronged stereotyping', 'double-jeopardy', and the 'double whammy' experienced by deaf women" (MacLeod-Gallinger, 1992, pp. 315-325). Apparently, within the deaf community, women suffer from a dual stereotyping which consists of the following: (1) external stereotyping based on deafness; and (2) internal stereotyping based on more traditional perceptions of appropriate sex roles within...