ABSTRACT
Few views in the area of mental retardation have had the influence and the staying power of the formulation that retarded persons are inherently more rigid. This position was originally advanced by Lewin (1936) over 40 years ago and subsequently elaborated by Kounin (1939, 1941a, b, 1948). In the 3 decades following the original statements of the position, numerous empirical investigations on the issue were conducted. Perhaps even more importantly, it had a great deal of influence on the care, treatment, and training of retarded individuals (Sarason & Gladwin, 1958). In recent years the rigidity position has been seen as being little more than a relic, of interest only in the context of the history of the mental retardation movement. It is our view that the view of rigidity as only a matter of history is inaccurate and that variants of the rigidity position, phrased in the current language of cognitive psychology, are still very much a part of the psychology of mental retardation. The current variants of the rigidity position are discussed following a presentation of the original position.
