 Wolfensberger acknowledges that “the sociologist Talcott Parsons (e.g., 1951) was one of the early authorities to emphasize the importance of social roles” (2013, p. 45).Also, he often referenced the (1958, 1961, 1963) works of another influential sociologist, Erving Goffman (e.g., Wolfensberger, 1999).In an extensive review, Lemay (1999) documents how Wolfensberger's role theory is consistent with the extant sociological literature, including the works of Parsons and Goffman, though it stands on its own and makes original contributions to role theory's explanatory power (as described below).