Tolerance for deviance: subjective evaluation of the social validity of the focus of treatment in mental retardation.

Staff members from an American institution, Israeli institutions, and a number of American group homes were asked to rate the social tolerability of 84 types of behavior that reflected either skill deficits or social maladaptation. There was considerable agreement among the three sample groups about the relative rank ordering of the 84 items. Physical violence and socially disgusting behavior were perceived as most intolerable whereas deficits in academic skills were least intolerable. The Israeli sample was uniformly less tolerant than either American sample.