Social validation of heterosexual social behavior in community settings: A comparison of mentally retarded and non-mentally retarded adults

Adaptive heterosexual social interaction in community settings is an age-appropriate social skill. Subjective evaluation methodology was used as a social validation procedure to establish the appropriateness and optimal rate of occurrence of heterosexual social behaviors in bar and restaurant settings. Professionals working with mentally retarded persons and college students completed rating scales for hypothetical mentally retarded as well as non-mentally retarded subjects, respectively. The results show congruity between the behavioral expectations for mentally retarded and non-mentally retarded people in community settings. The findings suggest appropriate behaviors for training mentally retarded clients who lack adequate heterosexual community social skills.