ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the methodological limitations of research into parent's reactions to their handicapped child, and discusses the implications of applying a more satisfactory conceptual framework to the area of enquiry. Research on attitudes of parents of handicapped children has generally been based on expectation of deviance, i.e. focussing on difficult, hurtful feelings to the exclusion of positive feelings about the child making judgements about parents attitudes and feelings in terms of assumed psychopathology. The chapter also discusses the design for general use and have appeared most often in published studies of parents of mentally handicapped children. Kelly developed repertory grid technique as a way of measuring construct systems. Potentially the use of repertory grids in research with parents would meet the requirement of focussing on individual differences, and since content is personal it is not judged in advance as functional or dysfunctional. parental behaviour is controlled by knowledge of infant behavior, expectations about behavior differences, and early diagnostic labels.
