| Abstract: | Uncertainties about causes, expression, and treatment of mental retardation will not yield to simplistic unidimensional models that fail to take into account a vast array of dynamically interacting biological, social, and ecological variables. Issues concerning mental retardation cut across major conceptual dilemmas that have long confronted psychology, biology, and sociology: What is the nature of intelligence? To what extent can environment influence outcome? What level of theoretical construction will produce our most useful bases for social policy? The problems are complex: The solutions can be no less. The time has come to develop a new definition of mental retardation, accompanied by reliable methods to assess and classify children's intellectual and social competence in relation to a valid taxonomy of environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
