The Rationale and Irrational in Zigler's Motivational Approach to Mental Retardation *

This chapter acknowledges the important theoretical and practical contributions of Edward Zigler's motivational approach to mental retardation but criticizes his characterization of a dichotomy between a motivational approach and a cognitive or so-called “defect” or “difference” approach. His view that differences in performance between retardates and MA-matched normals are to be attributed to motivational rather than cognitive factors is questioned. It is suggested that the notion of mutually exclusive explanations for differences in MA-matched groups is not intrinsic to Zigler's work and could be discarded without jeopardizing any of his major theoretical formulations.