The Psychological Record, 1982,32,305-313

PSYCHOLOGICAL RETARDATION
AND INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENTS

J.R.KANTOR
University of Chicago

Because the problems of juvenile retardation are so important, it is

gratifying that so many psychologists are interested in describing and in-
terpreting such events in preparation for modifying them.
I n this connection attention is directed to the field details ofretardation
which name a particular form of maladaptation induded in the in-
terbehavioral continuum. To specify the origin and conditions of the un-
satisfactory behavior n,ay be useful in practice and in a general un-
derstanding of individual and cultural psychology.

APPLAUDABLE INTEREST IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RET ARDA TION

A commendable preoccupation of clinical psychologists is the copious

and intense interest in problems of retardation. Surely the abnormalities of
development and the consequent maladjustments and maladaptations call
loudly for understanding and possible amelioration. Moreover, the study of
diversities of psychological personalities holds promise of an increased
understanding of psychology itself.
The prevalence of psychological deficiencies while performing needed
adjustments to the multiplicity of environing conditions results not only in
calamitous and tragic exigencies of individual existence, but also affects
human circumstances throughout all ranges of societal and intercommunal
disharmonies. Accordingly, all praise to those who promote a general
appreciation of the nature and consequences of psychological ab-
normalities. Satisfying evidence of the intense interest in psychological
deficiencies is provided by many recent articles and such extensive hand-
books as those of Ellis (1963) and Stevens and Heber (1964). Conspicuous
among current articles is that of Bijou and Dunitz-Johnson (1981) which
includes four well-packed pages of references to the study and description
of the juvenile form of interbehavioral deviation.

PSYCHOLOGICAL RETARDATION: A UNIT TYPE

OF INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENT
Psychological retardation as the current name for the paucity and

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306 KANTOR

inadequacy of interbehavior is of greater scope than is usually realized.

Hence the widespread interest of psychologists in the early stages of per-
sonality development and in the inadequate performances of children in
domestic situations and in school progress concerns only a specialized
department of psychological abnormalities.
Thus, in the interest of an adequate understanding of psychological
deviations and maladjustments it is necessary to consider juvenile retar-
dation in the general perspective of psychological normality as well as in the
domain of its mal adaptations whenever and wherever they exist among
human populations. Interbehavioral abnormalities of every sort are points
on a definite continuum. Since all psychological events are developmental,
early stages called retardation are continuous with later stages resulting in
the entire series which includes paranoiac, depressive, manic, and
degenerative pathologies.
Maladjustments occur in the activities of mature persons in all ad-
justmental interactions within interpersonal and societal environments. It is
perhaps not redundant to point out the ever-present prevalence of
calamitous maladaptations, assassinations, genocide, and the internal
warfare of various tribes and nations. History relates that long before the
recent world wars, there have been striking examples of aggressions, mutual
misunderstandings, and amplified destructions. It appears that the
members of all societal entities have recently acquired the techniques of
destruction, making use of all sorts of weapons and ammunition in order to
overcome their antagonistic cohorts and competitive communities.
Many persons and societal groups are proclaiming the impotence of
humanists to make headway in the advancement of societies. Wonder and
bafflement have given rise to the question why humanists, whether
psychologists or sociologists, should be so behind the physicists and the
chemists in advancing the advantageous conditions of social existence.
It may be said that the humanists and all their efforts are retarded from
the standpoint of Karl Marx's dictum about changing the world and not
only viewing and suffering from it. Changes for the better may be
pronounced as more necessary than ever before, but nothing noticeable
seems to be forthcoming in the way of economic adaptations, social im-
provements, or international relations. Maladaptation in effect is one of the
most obvious characteristics of human living.
It is the goal of the present essay to survey the general aspects of
retardation and other maladaptations on the ground that, in this way, a
more adequate appreciation will emerge concerning scientific psychology as
well as psychological retardation or noncompetence.
Query: May we not suggest that literature on retardation which mainly
concerns child development should consider a more meticulous survey of
psychological events which shows that juvenile maladjustments are only a
particular type of deficient psychological performance?
As Kantor (1926) pointed out, the basic feature of the usual or
pathological deviations is the failure of individuals to be equipped properly
to adapt themselves to some or all of a given type of ambient circumstances.
Primarily, there has been a lack of development of adequate response and
stimulus functions. (For a description on interbehavioral functions, see
Kantor, 1924-1926, chapter 30, and Kantor and Smith, 1975, chapter 3.)
 RETARDATION AND INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENTS 307

The following quotation suggests the nature and scope of retardation.

From the psychological standpoint, then, the types of personality quoted

under the general heading of feeble-minded [retarded] represent only a series
of types of individuals who have failed to achieve satisfactory, permanent,
personality development. From the psychological standpoint, therefore, the
failure of development of equipment in any type of behavior situation
constitutes an abnormality [retardation). Thus, for example, individuals who
are generally called normal must be placed in our category of undeveloped
individuals if it happens that they find themselves unequipped with reaction
systems to meet particular situations. A physician or engineer who, in a
situation different from the everyday run of conditions, finds himself lacking
in the necessary informational or technical equipment, must be placed under
this category of abnormality [retardation]. (Kantor, 1924-1926, p. 473,
brackets added.)

It is clear, then, why retardation or noncompetence is a universal condition

of the psychological domain. In fact, retardation and all other types of
maladjustments are in a last analysis merely extremes of individual dif-
ferences. Retardation is a name for the inflexibility of persons in meeting
the exigencies of daily living. Retardation or incapability must then be
considered as a positive psychological process and not merely a negative and
deprivative one.
Scientific psychology must enlarge its horizon to take account of the
fact that since all societies, communities, and groups are primarily made up
of persons, the processes of retardation influence the character of societies.
This influence results in the emergence of a peaceful or aggressive
civilization, a republican or monarchical nation, or a capitalistic or com-
munistic economy. Of course, there are nonpsychological factors to be
taken into consideration which facilitate or inhibit the development or
performance of necessary or desirable actions.
INTERBEHA VIORAL VARIANCE: PROCESS AND PRODUCT

Process
Since all types of maladjustment consist of unusual or pathological
deviance from conventional social, individual, legal, and moral norms, it is
advisable to elaborate upon the processes of variance and the resulting
product. Extreme variance or behavioral pathology may be described as a
deficiency or nonperformance of a desirable or necessary action within a
psychological field or situation where potential stimulus objects are present;
in brief, it is a faulty process of psychological adjustment.
Central to the basic processes of psychological interactions is the
coordination of response and stimulus functions. Organisms build up
functions or actions to objects reciprocally with specific objects taking on
interbehavioral functions. This reciprocal function-building process plus
the future repetitions of the interbehavioral fields thus built up exclusively
constitute the authentic data of scientific psychology. To be added of course
to this mechanism are the normal conditions of the organisms and ambient
objects; for example, the maturational status of organisms and the
physiochemical and cultural properties of the interacting objects. To
illustrate, a cubical block cannot for an infant be coordinate with a rolling
308 KANTOR

response-act but a ball can. Some organisms are incapable of building up

responses at all for certain things but others can, although with inap-
propriate sequela. Then the organism is non compos but perhaps not
seriously. To swallow chemically contaminated bits of lime as children do is
a symptom of incompetence but only in a cultural or developmental way.
Such infantile behavior may be regarded as normal deviation. There are
many situations in which response-stimulus coordinations are discretional
but restrictions are demanded in many or most circumstances.

Product
Retardment as a product is apparently the result of a unique form of
development or lack of development. It leaves a person or individual
without particular behaviors or reaction systems, or as a generally deficient
personality. As is inevitable, the product of psychological development
results in distinctive individual differences and variations of psychological
personalities.
We must add here in the interest of scientific precision that deviation
and individual differences in general are specific and may concern only
particular types of behavior and unique criteria of judgment.

THEORETICAL APPRAISALS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVIATIONS

As is to be expected, the approaches to the problem of retardation or

maladjustment and incompetence have been variously interpreted by the
general witting or unwitting theoretical position of interested workers. It is
clear, however, that a qualified understanding and attempts at amelioration
of unsatisfactory deviations require interpretations based on the efficient
analyses of the observed adaptational events. Accordingly, it is desirable to
consider the several underlying theories of the psychological deviations. For
convenience we compare three major types of psychological premises.
Mentalistic Psychology
In the earlier phases of retardation study, the term "feeblemind-
edness" was employed to describe the defective or undesirable behavior.
This was the age when psychologists were still addicted to the view that
psychological behavior was the activity of a soul or mind which existed
outside the space-time bounds of natural events. During the early dominance
of the psychic view the soul unit was nominated mind with faculties which
later were considered as associations of units called ideas and sensations
plus feelings and will.
With the advancement of physiological knowledge, the psycho-
physical view emerged that the soul or mind must invariably be related to
the body of the individual, especially the head which harbored the most
centralized part of the nervous system, that is, the brain.
Gradually, as the ecological branch of biology developed, it became
obvious that an interpretation in dualistic terms revealed a total lack of
understanding of psychological events and the manner of their various
deviations. Thus an intense aversion developed against mentalistic premises
and in favor ofbehaviorism.
 RETARDATION AND INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENTS 309

Behaviorism
By the 19th century, the advancement of biological experiments
became the signal of a revolution in psychological thinking. Of primary
importance was Darwin's development of the view that a definite continuity
existed between the souled humans and the nonsouled infrahuman animals.
Psychology could then limit itself to actions in immediate connection with
the conditions of the environment without resort to psychic intervention.
A powerful impetus too was given to nonmentalistic psychology by the
popularity attained by Pavlovian conditioning. Thus, psychologists
developed a massive industry of animal learning in dogs, cats, rats, pigeons,
and other animals to the complaint of other psychologists that cognition as
in perceiving was neglected. The notion that cognition was neglected ap-
parently could be held only when it was assumed that cognition involved
mentalistic factors.
Properly to assess the impact of behaviorism upon the deviation
process and products, it is desirable to indicate the essential principles of
behavioristic psychology and to separate it from other views that it
gradually adopted.
From the standpoint of psychological events in general, behaviorism
stresses learning or the process of behavior acquisition. This process is
claimed to be one of reinforcement or rewarding as can be elaborately
demonstrated by laboratory manipulations. A great emphasis is placed
upon stimulus objects with casual antecedence.
What is lacking in the original behavioristic position are the distinctive
field conditions with specific details of what organisms do in relation with
environmental objects. Reinforcement is certainly incapable of including
many details of the development of retardation or abnormalities as of
normal or uncomplained of behavior.

The Interbehavioral Assessment

Early in the 20th century, the antimentalistic view of psychology was
developed on the basis of observations that psychological events constitute
fields of simultaneous organism-object interbehavior. But this gross and
surface observation upon fields required the basic analysis of the variables
in the fields.
The essential principle of the interbehavioral position is to observe the
neonate as it matures by evolving ways of adjusting to persons, things,
conditions, events, and so on. Interbehavioral psychology is not limited to
the surface features of organisms and ambient objects but proceeds to the
analysis of the interbehavioral functions of persons and objects. Always
reactions or responses are differential as are the functions of stimulus
objects. Such functions are developed from the actual contacts of
organisms and objects in which organisms and objects develop their func-
tions which are the basic data of psychology.
Adherents to the interbehavioral position claim that the results of the
basic analyses of psychological fields offer the only pathway to a
naturalistic psychology and hence is enabled to provide a satisfactory at-
titude toward the events of both normal (satisfactory) as well as abnormal
or deviant behavior, whether or not approved of. The interbehavioral view
alone can bypass all notions ofvitalism and psychism.
310 KANTOR

PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIANCE: PLUS AND MINUS

Granting that the study of psychological variances is a positive en-

terprise, it is important to observe that negative deviations are closely
correlated with positive gains which sometimes conceal failings and often
overshadow adaptational incapacities.
Vegetative idiots are the most extreme, underdeveloped organisms but
even they may display some psychological gains. The great majority of
retardates must be credited with small or great psychological development.
Especially the deprivates may display traits of superiority in some respect.
The famous case of Kaspar Hauser may be mentioned. It is not unusual to
find rather profound retardates who have developed sensitive regards for
some person or situation though they are otherwise incapable of adapting
themselves to the wider circumstances of their surroundings. And then there
are the idiots savants who display marvelous feats of information and
calculation.
While the lack of development of acceptable behavior must always be
stressed, one must not overlook that even extreme incompetence does not
exclude the development of useful and at times satisfactory and even
superior interbehavioral fields. Retardation is in an authentic sense a double
process, (1) a negative failure of acceptable or desirable development, plus
(2) the development of favorable or proper types of behavior.

NOSOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
OF INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENTS

It is the personal evolutionary process that influences the types and

qualities of performances of individuals in all their many activities.
Depending upon the details of their personality evolution, individuals
achieve their specific kind and number of behavior potentials. Persons may
be intelligent or stupid, able or disable, display particular types of interest,
ambition, beliefs, and in general, flexibility or inflexibility in meeting the
exigencies of daily living. Maladaptation or incapability must then be
considered as a positive psychological process and not merely a negative and
deprivative one.
So great is the variety of interbehavioral maladjustments that a
problem arises as to how to classify or organize the specificities of the
particular interbehaviors. A suggested nosology was indicated by Kantor
(1926). The following examples symbolize attempts at systemizing
maladaptations.
1. Criterion, Age, and Growth.
Since all psychological events begin slightly before birth and continue
throughout the life of the organism, one may observe the adjustmental
development as to interbehavioral progress. The neonate may be developing
adaptational interbehavior or failing to do so. Malbehavior will consist of
lack of primitive discriminative action to the things and conditions con-
stituting the stimulus objects. There may be retardment or nullity, or the
performance of adequate and satisfactory movements leading to actions of
walking, speaking, and other necessary behaviors. In general, some
neonates develop satisfactorily, or develop and perform malfunctioning
behavior.
 RETARDATION AND INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENTS 311

With periods of maturation the individual constantly enters into a

more complex world with increasing potentiality for interbehaving well or
ill. But in all the different periods making up the maturing process there are
numerous opportunities for developing satisfactory or improper ad-
justmental actions. Depending upon the proportion of each type of in-
terbehavior the individual will become normal, superior, or a pathological
personality.
2. Criterion of Interbehavioral Typology.
Psychological interbehaviors, whether properly adjusting or not, vary
enormously depending upon specific fields. Maladaptations, accordingly,
may center about lack of knowledge or information, affective behavior
such as distress or depression, and intensity of acting as in overacting in
situations not necessary, destructive behavior, and so on. Individuals
display bad judgment, gamble, mistrust people.
3. Criterion of Severity of Maladjustment.
Inasmuch as maladjustments of any type of interbehavior are
frequently occurring, they can be organized on the basis of severity or
intensity. Consider juvenile conditions. Children may lack a few or many
behavior equipments or develop several or more nonadaptable traits or
ways of responding to particular stimulus objects or situations. The con-
ventional terms of morons, imbeciles, and idiots point only to certain
identified maladjusting individuals but there are many intervening types.
Again, among advanced or entirely mature persons, tradition has
differentiated between normal malperformers, unusual personalities, and
pathologic performers but these are only slight indications of the expansive
range of maladjustments and abnormal personalities.

CONDITIONS OF INTERBEHAVIORAL DEVIATIONS

Within the framework of scientific psychology any analysis of events

requires attention to the surrounding conditions of normal or deviant
adjustments. Such accounts taken of conditions, which are integral factors
in the occurrence, maintenance, and alleviation of maladjustments are
highly illuminating. In the following samples of conditions of malad-
justments there are indications of the numerous influences which make for
deviations of behavior.
Biological conditions. Since psychological interbehaviors are con-
tinuous with biological interbehavior, the prior developments of organisms
operate as favorable or unfavorable for the evolution of normal or deviant
personalities. Accordingly nonviable gene combinations, species variations,
accidents of gestation or birth will influence malformations or general
deviations. Serious errors of biological development result in extreme
psychological pathologies.
Group membership. Another important set of conditions for adap-
tation is localized in the limitations imposed by groups, family, local
community, region, nation, and state, on individuals. That signifies that the
individual must be in immediate contact with particular institutions,
linguisitic, domestic, religious, and so on. Specialization signifies more or
less deprivation. There is limitation no matter how effective or learned one
may be in craftmanship, scholarship, or profession. Tradition, standards,
312 KANTOR

mores, guide the person in his or her behavior. Versatility may not be en-
tirely excluded, but it is decidedly curtailed. The larger the size of the en-
closing group, the more system is imposed upon persons. There are mass
curricula, mass rites, conventions, confirmations, commitments. Schools
are conducted much more with regard to costs and controls than with
pupils. The exceptions prove and test the conditions. In general, group
living engenders cults, gregariousness but little individuality. That must
develop by overcoming the system, by cross culturalization, and the critical
analysis of institutions.
Conditions of personality retardation. To inquire into the conditions
of personality retardation, it is well to differentiate between the lack of one
or many behavior segments or the complete behavior backwardness of an
individual. In both cases, one may expect organismic factors such as
anatomical or physiological circumstances as well as interbehavioral
deprivations. In general, the degree of deficiency is somewhat limited and
simple. But the deprivation feature is more marked. Deprivation may be
almost total as in the famous cases of Kaspar Hauser and so-called wolf or
feral children.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION

In view of the universal and inevitable variations of psychological

interbehavior, with its almost limitless extremes, there is a definite clue to
both the gains and losses in the individual and group careers of living. It is
all too obvious how the errors of development including the development of
maladjusting interactions with things and events give rise to the short-
comings of personal existence as well as to those of groups in which persons
participate as members. They overshadow all the superiorities of human
achievement in the domains of invention, general creativity as well as moral
and legal interpersonal relations.
Although in this article we have been concerned with the general
consequences from exaggerated individual differences, we have suf-
ficiently covered the maladjusting results of individuals. Now we proceed to
consider the ill effects of extreme variations in the psychological life of
groups called culture or civilization.
As to the shortcomings of civilization, there are among critics of many
sorts those who regard it as little more than a veneer beneath which is
revealed the impeding barriers toward societal and psychological evolution.
They point to the risks of gregarious existence. For example, the prevalence
of profound stupidity in interpersonal and international relations leading to
the ineffective circumstances of societal organization, political systems,
miscarriage of justice, the paranoia of nations, the domination of male or
female members of societies, the subjugation of minorities and their
genocidal destruction, the perseveration of classes on the basis of inhumane
institutions. A not too eccentric hypothesis is that civilization retreats in-
cessantly away from the actualities of natural things and events, and thus
loses the supreme guidance of reasonable existence.
In civilizations of every hue and variety, the psychological behavior of
the human participants is interwoven with mysteries, myths, and miracles.
"Ideals" and "realities" are "localized" in a world beyond the galaxies,
 RETARDATION AND INTERBEHAVIORAL MALADJUSTMENTS 313

the radiations, the earth and persons in their coexistence. Metaphors,

symbols, fictions, and verbal similes are substituted for things, persons, and
events. Speech and language certainly stand on an exalted level of human
evolution but unfortunately the blessings it brought to mankind are much
polluted by misunderstanding and misuse. Although it is well known that
the production of creators, gods, irrational institutions, and rash
evaluations are brought about by verbal manipulations, yet there is little
effort to control the imaginings leading to spurious traditions, beliefs, and
their sequels in every age and culture. Mankind and human behavior are
evolving, but not in line with natural events. Even the great achievements of
hominids in their technological and scientific aspects do not overweigh the
retardations that impede further humanistic evolution.

REFERENCES
BIJOU, S.W., & DUNITZ-JOHNSON E. 1981. Interbehavior analysis of developmental
retardation. The Psychological Record, 31, 305-329.
ELLIS, N.R. (Ed.). 1963. Handbook ojmental deficiency. New York: McGraw-Hill.
KANTOR, J.R., & SMITH, N.W. '1975. The science oj psychology, An interbehavioral
survey. Chicago: Principia.
KANTOR, J .R. 1924-1926. Principles ojpsychology(Vol. 2). New York: Knopf.
STEVENS, H.A., & HEBER, R. (Eds.). 1964. Mental retardation. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.