Discrepant judgements of community adjustment of mentally retarded adults: the contribution of personal responsibility.

Criteria used to determine community adjustment of mentally retarded adults were rated for importance by two groups of their employers, two groups of service-agency staff members, and one group of parents to determine whether normative criteria differed across the groups. In a second study case descriptions, varying on the adjustment criterion of personal responsibility, were presented to an additional sample from the five groups. Results of discriminant fuction analysis showed that parents and service-agency staff members differed markedly on the importance given to personal responsibility. This discrepancy was confirmed in the second study. Employers stressed work-related criteria more than did the other groups. The relevance of discrepancies between the criteria of adjustment used by parents, employers, and service-agency staff members to the measurement of adjustment and to social-validation programs were discussed.