A Study of Attitude Acceptance and Social Adjustment.

A study involving 60 university students in teacher training inv stigated the difference between individuals with high and low atti ude acceptance toward the handicapped in relation to social adjus sent. Ss were administered the Is of Identity test (101) to obtain measures of social-personal adjustment and the Attitude Toward Handicapped Individuals scale (ATHI). Although findings showed that there was significant difference between high and low scoring ATHI groups in social adjustment, both high and low ATHI groups scored high on the IOI. Evidence suggested that the notion of maladjustment for rejecting Ss (low ATHI scorers) could not be sustained, and further research should use both handicapped and nonhandicapped samples and should consider different criteria for measuring adjustment. (SB) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * .supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. *********************************************************************** 54th Annual Conference CALIFORNIA EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION November 12-13, 1975 San Diego, California U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION A WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRO DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEWOR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY A STUDY OF ATTITUDE ACCEPTANCE AND SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT Alfred L. Lazar California State University, Long Beach Donna Haughton The University of Texas at Austin Russel Orpet California State University, Long Beach (This investigation was supported in part by BEH Grant Number OEG-0-74-2974. The opinions and conclusions stated in this paper are those of the authors and are not to be construed as official or necessarily reflecting the policy of the Bureau for the Educationally Handicapped, U.S. Office of Education.) California State University, Long Beach Long Beach, California 90840 In any large social or professional group one can expect to find individuals ranging in a continuum from those who are considered "well adjusted" to those who are considered "maladjusted." It must be reali.led that the division of persons into such groupings is generally arbitrary. The operational definitions of the critical terms involved would be reflected in the'nature of the instrumentation used to measure such appropriate and inappropriate adjustment. The Is of Identity test (MI) was developed by Weiss (1954) and is reported to give a satisfactory indication of social adjustment or maladjustment. The major purpose of the IOI test is to measure one very important underlying reason for a person's lack of satisfactory adjustment, the use of language or language patterns of a structure dissimilar to the structure of the nonverbal world, and the unawareness of this dissimilarity. It is the dissimilarity that causes the individual to make misevaluations about his immediate world that can lead to consequent maladjustment.