This report explores current assumptions about the social and scientific formulations and treatments of disability that currently underlie the research agenda in the disability field. Formulations that focus on disability as residing in the individual (Individual Pathology) are discussed. Treatment strategies resulting from this definition of disability include the biomedical approach, which emphasizes the biomedical origin of disability, and the functional approach, which focuses on ways of treating functional incapacity through amelioration and enabling strategies to assist people to develop their potential. Formulations that focus on the sociopolitical nature of disability (Social Pathology) are also examined, including the environmental approach, which focuses on the interaction between individuals and their environments, and the rights-outcome approach, which focuses on broad systemic factors that keep certain people from participating as equals in society. The social, economic, ethical, and professional forces that shape research agendas are reviewed. These include the impact of economic neoconservativism, utilitarianism as the underlying principle for research and professional practice, and a research culture driven by objectivity and positivism. The research community is urged to recognize the forces that shape the questions they ask and the criteria of validity they adopt in disability research. (CR)