Past Prize-Winning Programs
The Abe Prize
(The program judged to be of particular merit in the Adult Education Category)
HEALTH AND DISEASE: More Than Meets the Eye

Entered by BBC Open University Production Centre
Category: Adult Education
Duration: 25 min. 00 sec.
When people are injured or scarred in the face through an accident or due to disease, what kind of psychological effects do the resulting disfigurements have on them? How do other people behave when they are confronted with facial disfigurements in other people?

This program explores how the psychological conditions of James and Mala, who have facial disfigurements, changed over the course of time. It examines various responses of non-disfigured people to them through experiments conducted at a university to compare psychological reactions in various situations.

The result of the experiments showed that non-disfigured people accept and respond with good will to people with disfigurements who have positive attitudes and are comfortable with themselves. James and Mala explain without sentiment how they found that they learned accept the reactions of others when they had learned to accept themselves. They discover that it is their own attitudes that control social interactions.

The program was highly praised by the jury members who commented, "Viewers experience emphathy since anyone could be faced with this kind of situation any time," and, "The program conveys its message to the viewers very clearly through scientific research such as psychological experiments and throughvisual techniques which are effectively employed."