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Research on professionals’, consumers’, and others’ judgments of the restrictiveness, social acceptability, and estimated frequency of use of procedures to decrease behavior were reviewed. General findings were that (a) respondents generally were consistent in rating procedures from least to most restrictive; (b) most respondents agreed that procedures judged more restrictive should be used as a last resort; (c) more restrictive procedures were not frequently used in practice; (d) respondents generally agreed that less restrictive procedures were more socially acceptable, and vice versa; and (e) the social acceptability of procedures changed as a function of contextual variables. Problems related to research methodology were discussed and future research directions suggested.
Originally published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.