From: " A Brief Overview of Social Role Valorization' 2000 Mental Retardation, 38(2) 105-123

A practical step-wise regimen for applying Social Role-Valorizing measures to a specific party

When one is ready to apply SRV to a specific party... then one can vastly increase one's chances for success by adhering to a six-step regimen sketched below.

If one is dealing with a party that has been wounded because of its devalued status, then it is absolutely necessary to deeply familiarize oneself with those wounds.

in addition, one needs to know in what respects a party is vulnerable (i.e., what the areas of high risk are for that parry). For instance, elderly persons are at higher risk of developing health problems, elderly women specifically are at risk of breaking bones ... . Mentally retarded persons are at risk of being taken advantage of by people who are smarter and unscrupulous, and of being expected to fail at tasks that require learning or competency ... . Among the mentally retarded, two risk points have recently become more common. One is with retarded children who are doing well in an integrated schooling situation but who may drop back into much less favourable circumstances when they "age out" of school. Another is with many mentally retarded adults who enjoyed 10 or 20 years of reasonably good living and working situations, but whose circumstances can rapidly deteriorate already in their mid-years. Altogether, failure to take risk factors into account often has devastating consequences.

One makes an inventory of both the positive, the negative, and the in-between, ambivalent, or mixed roles that the party currently holds.

In part with the help of the above inventories, one forms an overall idea of the party's current social standing and value in the eyes of society. Is the party highly valued, of average standing, marginally on the positive or negative side of neutral, deeply devalued, of equivocal value standing, or what? The previously mentioned risk analysis will be very informative here, because it is conceivable that a party - even if currently valued - may have a higher-than-average risk of a particular kind and may need more than ordinary safeguards in that risk area against roledegradation and loss of social value.

Four overall considerations about roles, images, and competency will be helpful as one applies SRV.

One needs to form a judgment as to whether - in the case of a particular party-the enhancement of competency or of imagery would be more likely to be effective. For instance, a competent person released from prison can be expected to benefit most from image enhancement, while for a person who recently lost competencies due to an accident, restoration of the lost competencies may have primacy. The image problems of mentally retarded persons are usually secondary to their competency deficits, which may have certain action implications.

At the same time, one also needs to form a judgment about whether the most desirable measure is also reasonably feasible. For instance, with severely mentally impaired persons, competency enhancement may be the theoreti­cally most effective measure, but image enhancement may be the only thing that may be practical to accomplish. Also, in many people's cases, image enhancement is the first and easiest thing one can do, whereas competency enhancement may be a long and drawn-out process. In contrast, children tend to absorb age-appropriate competencies like a sponge, so competency enhancement may be highly feasible with them.

In regard to both (a) and (b), the fact is that the less accessible any competency-related roles are, the more important become attributed or ascribed roles, and often specifically relationship-based ones.

(c)      The more that a party who is already in devalued roles, or who is at signifi­cant risk of role-degradation, is seen by others (i) in places frequented by valued people in society, and (ii) in actual association with valued people, and (iii) in activities that are valued, the more are role-valorization benefits apt to accrue to that devalued party, often first in the image domain and sometimes also, and derivatively, in the competency domain. This is especi­ally apt to be true if the valued people who associate with the persons at issue do so without being coerced, or feeling resentful about it. In contrast, if even one of these three positive elements is missing, then people's image certainly, and sometimes their competency as well, are apt to suffer. ...

(d)        It is very important that in efforts to enhance the image of a devalued person, one does not become deceptive. If one projects onto a person images of competency or positive roles that the person does not possess, this could have devastating consequences: (i) observers may expect something that the person cannot do, which in turn could endanger the person, could confirm such a person's failure expectancies, and/or could confirm observers' negative stereotypes about such persons, and (ii) the parties who conveyed the false messages may lose all credibility.

Step 6. Identifying the currently held, or desired, roles that one wants to valorize or change to a party's advantage (i.e., the role goals)

Leaning again on the earlier inventories, it is now time to begin to select one's role goals, and there are up to six types to select from. However, at least the first four of the five steps reviewed earlier must be taken before one is in a good position to decide which of these goals to pursue. The fifth of the above steps (with its four considerations) can be incorporated into the design of any of the role goals that follow.

If the previously established inventory has identified any positive roles a party already holds, then one relevant measure is to explore what can be done to further valorize one or more of these roles. This is particularly important if the party at issue does not hold many valued roles or also holds some devalued ones. There are two distinct subgoals here.

(a) The first one is to enhance - perhaps by enlargement - one or all of the valued roles already held. An example of an image measure would be to upgrade the title of a person's valued role. An example of a competency measure would be to help a person to acquire new skills so that he or she can perform additional valued functions within one or more valued roles already held. ...

(b) The second sub-goal is to defend the valued roles already held against losses, diminishment, or degradations. This is particularly important when a party is at distinct risk of losing one or more of its valued roles, for example when an individual's job is in jeopardy or a person acquires a chronic bodily affliction or becomes elderly. There are often things that can be done to prevent, delay, or reduce such role losses. It is important to practice high consciousness of these risks, how they commonly lead to wounds, and to counter them as early and vigorously as possible. ... Sometimes, the preservation of even a single valued role can be life-deciding to a person ...

Regardless of whatever valued roles they may hold and be able to maintain, some people are at high risk of entering, or being cast into, new roles that are devalued, perhaps even in addition to whatever devalued roles they already hold. It is usually much easier to prevent such entry than to reverse it. High consciousness is of crucial importance here, particularly about which devalued roles a party is at risk of being thrust into. Thus, the previous inventory of risk factors once more becomes very helpful. For instance, impaired persons are often at risk of entering the sick role or chronic patient role. Such roles might be staved off by such competencysupporting measures as good health regimens, proper diet and exercise, and being cautious about taking recourse to certain health and mental services that are apt to ensnare a person into long-term patienthood. ...

ENABLING EITHER ENTRY INTO POSITIVELY VALUED NEW ROLES OR THE REGAINING OF VALUED ROLES PREVIOUSLY HELD

Often, it is possible to enable people to enter new roles that are valued (role acquisition) or to regain valued roles they had once held but have since lost (role recovery), Such a valued role may be an addition to one or more valued roles already held, or it may be a replacement for one or more valued roles already lost or about to be lost. However, for some people, it could be the first or even only valued role! ...

Many actions in this category will involve both image- and competency enhancement, such as enabling a child to take on the valued role of student, an adult to enter the role of worker or employee, or someone to enter the role of church choir member. ...

Sometimes, a person can recapture a valued role once held but then lost. ... Very relevant to many retarded people is that valued family roles may have been lost, perhaps because of discontinuities in family contacts or break-up of the family, institutionalization, or imprisonment. But it is often possible to restore a person's family ties and roles, so that the person becomes once again a valued brother or sister, aunt or uncle, grandparent or grandchild ... .

In regard to this role goal, and the first one of valorizing the positive roles already held, it is not always possible to craft what I had called a "big" positive role for devalued people, or it may take a long time to do so. Generally, it is much easier to craft small positive roles, and it may even be possible to craft several of them in relatively short order.

EXTRICATING A PARTY FROM CURRENTLY HELD DEVALUED ROLES

There are all sorts of things that can be done to help people to escape whatever devalued roles they are in. Actually, this is a function that is explicitly claimed (though rarely in role theory terms) by many human services ... . For instance, where an impaired adult is caught in an eternal child role, one might be able to help that person to escape that role by engaging in adult activities, developing adult interests and hobbies, etc. ...

REDUCING THE NEGATIVITY OF A DEVALUED ROLE CURRENTLY HELD

Most people occupy some - usually small - negative roles at least at some time during their lives, even if these negative roles are overshadowed by the positive ones they hold. For instance, we are all lawbreakers at various times, or dawdlers, or in a sick role ... . Unfortunately, devalued people often have not only mainly negative roles, but these may also dominate their lives. So aside from whatever other role goals might be pursued, the negativeness of one or all of a party's negative roles might also be reduced. This is not as good as fully extricating a person from a devalued role, but it is an improvement. Indeed, in a great many instances, a party is so deeply embedded in major negative roles that the best that one may be able to do is to take some of the negativeness out of one or some of them. ...

There are innumerable instances in which the acquisition of a new competency can diminish the negativity of one's devalued role. For instance, the more a person with a major medical condition, and clearly in the role of a sick patient, can learn to self-administer the required treatment and to take care of his or her condition, the less dominant will the sick role be in the minds of observers.

EXCHANGING CURRENTLY HELD DEVALUED ROLES FOR LESS DEVALUED NEW ONES

Different from upgrading a devalued role is to enable a parry to exchange one devalued role against a new one that is less devalued. For instance, a retarded person who is presently seen in the very negative role of a menace, an animal, or otherwise as nonhuman, would be vastly less endangered by being seen in the less negative role of an eternal child. ... In regard to this strategy, and the previous one of enabling entry into new valued roles, it is very important to note that there are innumerable valued work roles for adults that are not paid, but, nonetheless, statusimprovement and other benefits can be achieved through them. Of course, one should not aim to exchange one devalued role for a less devalued one if one can do even better and escape the devalued role altogether, or exchange it for a valued one.

Pointers about the pursuit of any of the role goals

One can now say some more things about the pursuit of any and all of the aforementioned role goals, and the respective means for pursuing them.

1/    One will often want to pursue several of the role goals at once.

2/    Holding one valued role often leads to others, a small valued role can sometimes serve as a springboard to a bigger or larger one, and relational roles often serve as mediators to other (including competency-exercising) ones.

3/    However, one trap to avoid is trying to inflate small positive roles already held into grotesque proportions, perhaps also at the expense of enabling entry into new positive roles. For instance, a small positive role (such as storyteller) that the person has been holding may get enlarged beyond its normative prominence, so that the person becomes obnoxious to others or an object of ridicule by telling stories all the time. ...

4/    Selecting the most role-valorizing measure can be very tricky when either different SRV goals or means compete with each other, or an SRV goal based on a certain value competes with another goal that has its rationale in other values. In fact, it is not uncommon for an image goal to compete with a competency goal, as when a competency-enhancing prosthetic device detracts from a person's positive image. Although there are principles for resolving such conflicts, these situations can be complicated and can scramble people's minds. A very common example of a clash of goals (and possibly values) occurs when a measure that would role-valorize a party within that party's larger society would not do so within that party's racial, ethnic, or religious subculture, or vice versa. This can be particularly wrenching when a person wants to belong to one (sub)culture but then would have to be and do certain things that draw devaluation and wounding from the other.

5/    In regard to most of the above strategies, it is crucially important that the positive roles that a person holds are made known, or better known, to others. After all, the benefits of SRV depend first on how other people perceive a party, and derivatively, based on these perceptions, what they decide to do to and for that party. If they do not know the valued roles a person holds, then they may not accord certain positive things to the person.

6/    Similarly, it can be of decisive importance that observers perceive a party's valued activities or functions in terms of very clearly established, identifiable and positive social role identities and concepts. Otherwise, the perceivers may not respond in a way that brings benefits to the party at issue. And in order for other people to thusly perceive, they may first have to have such activities translated to them into valued role terms. For instance, people will be much less impressed when they are told that an impaired person grows flowers (which is phrased in terms of an activity ) than if they are told that that person is a rose-gardener, a member of a gardening club, and a flower­seller to a local market-all things that are roles. Of course, in the translation process, one needs to keep in mind the earlier caveat about not being deceptive.

The potential contribution of different parties to the role-valorization of devalued people at various levels of social organization

I have said very little about who might do the work of role-valorization, but the fact is that almost all involved parties can do some of it: devalued people themselves, their families, other personal associates, advocates and allies, servers, service agencies, government, the media, etc. Where the intended beneficiaries are not in a good position to act effectively on their own behalf (usually because of impaired competency or reduced standing), then actions on their behalf by others become especially important. Also, different parties may be particularly well-situated to take actions relevant to either imagery or competency and/or on one or more of four distinct levels of social organization: that of the individual person, the levels of primary and intermediate social systems, and the societal level overall, as charted out in Wolfensberger (1998).

In the pursuit of even a very specific image or competency enhancement, one may be able to do things on several or all levels of social organization, and even without requiring any changes from the intended beneficiary - a fact that many people fail to understand. For example, adding raised letters and numbers, or Braille signs, to the control panel in an elevator enables blind people who can already read Braille to be more competent using the elevator and getting about. ...

In this brief presentation, relatively little has been said about the vast number of measures one could pursue on higher systemic levels, especially the societal one. However, two things should be clear. (a) There is a strong feedback loop between changes in or by individuals, groups, and classes and changes in and by society. (b) Efforts to change larger social systems may have more pay-off but could take a very long time - and could fail, whereas one has vastly better prospects at early success on the scale of individuals, groups, specific agencies, etc. Also, if societal change is one's goal, one should use appropriate, and multiple, social change strategies, only some of which are SRV measures. ...

Conclusion

Role theory can be an extremely powerful tool for analyzing and explaining what happens to impaired and/or devalued people and for crafting action measures to protect them from all sorts of bad things being done to them. Surprisingly, role theory and its findings had only been moderately exploited to this purpose prior to the advent of SRV

There is much controversy about the valuation of roles, of persons or people, and of the religious or philosophical construct of personhood. However, one thing is patently obvious. Being in roles valued by a perceiver makes it more likely that this perceiver will do good rather than bad things to and for one. Thus, all that has been covered boils down to putting good things - or at least, less bad things - about some person, group, or class into the minds of those others who are in a position to do good (or less bad) things to them. If people have and hold good things in their minds about others, they are more likely to do good things to them, just as if they hold bad things in their minds about and towards others, they are likely to do bad things to them. Relatedly, one could view SRV as a way of helping people to do what they really should want to do, and as a way of working toward a society in which (in the words of the French personalist Peter Maurin, 1997) it is easier for people to be good. The widespread practice of SRV would accomplish this by making it easier for people to value others, or to at least devalue them less.

However, one could take away some wrong ideas from this extremely short presentation. For instance, although SRV is a rather high-level conceptual scheme, and a parsimonious one at that (in being able to point to a vast number of actions on all levels of social organization and to incorporate the theorizing and findings of many other empirical theories), it has its limitations as do all schemata. These are not detailed in this short article, but no one should be surprised that SRV will not prevent wars, defeat disease, eliminate poverty, correct all invalid stereotypes, heal all wounds, or even eliminate mental retardation or make it a valued condition.

Finally, I want to emphasize again that even though SRV is the practical application of the knowledge of social science, such an application must be guided by values, and therefore some form of de facto religion. Social Role Valorization mines a wide range of sociology and psychology, it explains an entire range of phenomena around social valuation and devaluation, it predicts what will happen to people when they are subject to certain valuing or devaluing conditions, and it offers guidance as to what one might be able to do about any of this if one so chooses. But whom one decides to value or devalue, and for whom one decides to seek more positive roles, valuation and life experiences in society, and how far one wants to pursue this- these are all de facto religious decisions, not scientific ones, as explained in more detail in Wolfensberger (1995).