Staff understanding of normalisation and social role valorisation: Anstey and Gaskin (1985) revisited

Abstract

This article reports, in brief, the results of a study that attempted to replicate Anstey and Gaskin's (1985) study of definitional responses to the term “normalisation”. The present study concentrated on the responses of support staff who worked in group homes for people who have intellectual disabilities in the State of Victoria. Although the method of analysis varied from that of Anstey and Gaskin (1985), results indicated that knowledge of the term “normalisation” was very high, but most staff failed to associate the term with some of Wolfensberger's more complex ideas. Furthermore, analysis for the term “social role valorisation” revealed that only two thirds of the sample indicated that they had heard of the term, and just over half of these people successfully associated it with the stated major goal of Wolfenberger and Thomas (1983): the creation and defence of socially valued roles. These results are discussed in relation to staff practice.