Valuing the person or valuing the role? Critique of social role valorization theory

The view was presented that social role valorization is not an adequate reformulation and replacement for the principle of normalization due to (a) inconsistencies in application of a distinction between valuing the person and valuing the person's social role, (b) the fact that valued social roles do not automatically lead to culturally valued lives and identities, (c) social role valorization not being substantially less "trans-empirical" than normalization, and (d) the inadequacy of valued social roles in providing defense against the dynamics of social devaluation. The term social valorization, in which the person and role are valued, is offered as a possibly more coherent replacement for the term normalization.