Evaluation, interpretation, and acceptance of defense mechanistic behavior by mentally retarded and nonretarded children.

An underlying motive of behavior is attribution of self-failure that often takes the form of defense mechanisms. How defense mechanistic behavior would be viewed by peers was investigated. Mentally retarded and nonretarded students were given a story about fictional characters (either mentally retarded or "fast learners") who displayed defense mechanistic behavior. Students were then asked questions to gauge their acceptance of the characters and their hypotheses as to why characters acted as they did. Retarded students rated the defensive characters higher and liked them more than did the nonretarded students. Older nonretarded students were more accepting of one defensive character when informed that the character was retarded than when told that the character was a fast learner. Results were discussed in terms of Gold's (1975) competency/deviancy hypothesis.