ABSTRACT
A major purpose of the 8th Measurement and Evaluation Symposium, Exploring the Kaleidoscope was to explore measurement, research design, and statistics issues in selected subdisciplines of exercise and sport science. Attitudes, perceptions, and treatment of persons with a disability over the last 150 years have been guided by several ideologies. This chapter explains the overview of changes in perceptions, attitudes, and treatment of persons labeled mentally handicapped. The late 1950s and early 1960s raised awareness about the treatment mentally handicapped persons were receiving in institutions. A shocked public became aware of behaviors like head banging, crying, biting, vomiting, assaulting, screeching, rocking, and sleeping observed in overcrowded institutions. A movement toward deinstitutionalisation and normalization began, and the services-based model gained momentum. The chapter concludes that the suggest measurement, research design, and statistics problems that need to be addressed in order to ultimately study self-empowerment and self-regulation.
