ERIC ED384166: Psychological and Social Adjustment of Visually Impaired Youth: 1936-1992.

23 Pages·1992·0.31 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
EC 304 002
ED 384 166
Beaty, Lee A.
AUTHOR
Psychological and Social Adjustment of Visually
TITLE
Impaired Youth: 1936-1992.
PUB DATE
[92)
23p.
NOTE
Information Analyses (070)
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*Interpersonal
Child Behavior; *Emotional Adjustment;
DESCRIPTORS
Competence; Personality Traits; Psychological
Studies; *Self Concept; Self Esteem; *Social
Adjustment; Social Behavior; *Visual Impairments
ABSTRACT
The empirical research on psychological and social
impairments is
adjustment of children and adolescents with visual
functioning of
reviewed. The dichotomy between deficit and nondeficit
that some
these youths is explored. Personality research suggests
deficits in self-concept
youth with visual impairments display minor
of these
and self-esteem. It is noted that although the results
evidence in
self-concept studies are contradictory, there ie more
evidence in favor of
favor of than opposed to such deficits. The
negative social functioning and increased interpersonal
less
ineffectiveness among youth with visual impairments is somewhat
of
contradictory. Implications of the findings within the context
(Contains 33
current cultural perspectives are discussed.
references.)
(SW)
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PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL ADIUSTMENT
OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED YOUTH: 1936-1992
Lee A. Beaty, Ph.D.
Northeastern Illinois University
Counselor Education Program
O
O
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
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TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
;NFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
This paper reviews the existing empirical research on
Abstract:
adolescents
psychological and social adjustment of children and
The dichotomy between deficit and
with visual impairments.
Implications
non-deficit functioning of these youth is explored.
cultural
of these findings within the context of current
perspectives are discussed.
1
INTRODUCTION
not youth
The dilemma of attempting to determine whether or
well
with handicaps are psychologically and socially less
For
one.
adjusted than their non-handicapped peers is a puzzlin
who work
counselors, teachers, and other helping professionals
literature is
with these youth, the psychological and educational
inconsistent and contradictory relative to personal and
This dilemma is certainly no less
interpersonal adjustment.
puzzling for youth who experience serious vision problems,
What, then, is the
whether totally blind or partially sighted.
issues facing
nature of some of these important psychosccial
An examination of relevant empirical
visually impaired youth?
studies provides some answers, but there is really no consensus
these
about the effects of visual problems and vision loss on
overview of
It is the purpose of this paper to provide an
youth.
this issue.
the historical and contemporary perspectives on
has
In the visual impairment field, personality research
impaired
focused on two primary hypotheses: (a) that visually
psychological "problems" and (b)
persons exhibit a variety of
dysfunction
that they display "common" patterns of social
This perspective has
(Ammerman, Van Hasselt, & Hersen, 1986).
from many years of studies which have tended to support
result
It seems that many psychologists and
such a zsfunctional view.
deficits
educators have tended to favor evidence in support of
have been
when visually impaired and non-impaired persons
4
2
literature is based
It is true that much of the extant
compared.
which date from the 1930s); however,
on older studies (some of
understanding within the
this only increases the need for better
adjustment and
context of current perspectives on psychosocial
functioning.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT AND FUNCTIONING
the
Let us begin with an examination of some of
For
deficit-oriented studies of general personality development.
(CPI),
example, using the California Psychological Inventory
passivity in
Joffe and Bast (1978) noted less aggression and more
Burlingham (1979)
blind youth than in partially sighted youth.
balance
suggested that visually impaired children must constantly
independence with a realistic need for
a need for increasing
in feelings of
dependence on their sighted peers, thus resulting
inadequacy.
Petrucci's (1953) study of blind residential school children
Inventory
and adolescents utilized the Bemreuter Personality
for
She found that 78% of he:: subjects had a greater need
(BPI).
sociability, 73% were less self-sufficient, 71% were less
confident, 67% were more introverted, and 22% were more
However, an older study
submissive than sighted norm subjects.
Psychological
by Hastings (1947), also using the California
impaired and
Inventory, found no differences between visually
sighted children and adolescents in grades one through 12.
3
isolated
Hastings's study provides an interesting though
exception to the deficiency orientation.
and
With the use of both the BPI and the CPI, Greenberg
blind subjects were
Jordon (1957) found only that their totally
Hardy
subjects.
less authoritative than their partially sighted
Blind (ASB),
(1968), who developed the Anxiety Scale for the
He found that
examined blind adolescents and young adults.
but that
anxiety increased with age (not a surprising finding),
and intelligence
there was an inverse correlation between anxiety
functioning, the lower
that is, the higher one's intellectual
The latter finding is one which is
one's level of anxiety.
in
difficult to evaluate since there is little related research
this area, at least with respect to vi3ually impaired youth.
Within the context of these general personality studies, we
Tuttle (1984), who has
self.
can include the concept of ego or
studied the process of adjusting to blindness, defined the
"The perceptions and feelings an
concept of self as follows:
individual has about the self, whether realistic or not,
Thus,
cumulatively mold and shape the self-concept (p. 63)."
attributes
self-concept could be described as the collection of
which an individual uses to characterize himself/herself.
Fitts (1965), author of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale
imo five
(TSCS), separated this collection of attributes
self,
categories: physical self, personal self, moral/ethical
Fitts further suggested that both
social self, and family self.
in the
cognitive and affective dimensions are represented
4
is dependent both on
self-concept; that is, our sense of self
about who we are.
who we think we are and how we feel
self-concept and
Coopersmith (1967) has distinguished between
is actually derived
self-esteem by pointing out that self-esteem
In other words, the degree to
from the affective dimension.
about themselves
which people feel positively or negatively
Coopersmith also
determines the magnitude of their self-esteem.
attitude of approval or
felt that self-esteem represented an
and by
disapproval which individuals maintain about themselves
capability, competence, and
which they establish their sense of
type
Thus, one could correctly describe self-esteem as a
worth.
shaping individuals'
of internal evaluation which assists in
self-perceptions.
examining
There have been a considerable number of studies
self-concept/self-
the interaction between visual impairment and
1981).
esteem during the past 30 years (Cook-Clampert,
conclusions from the
Unfortunately, it is difficult to draw firm
in agreement
results of these studies since they tend not to be
Jervis
In one of the earliest of these studies,
with each other.
sighted adolescents
(1959) compared the self-concept of blind and
Few between-group differences were noted
by means of interviews.
about their
except that blind students seemed more concerned
(In other
positions.
futures and tended to endorse more extreme
low responses to
words, these students chose artificially high or
Zunich and Ledwith (1965), using an unidentified
items.)
Few
children.
self-concept scale, measured blind and sighted
7
5
they did
differences between groups were observed, although
to endorse
replicate Jervis's finding that blind subjects tended
more extreme positions.
impaired college
In the first empirical study of visually
enrolled in
students, Smith (1969) surveyed 55 college students
A total of 27 of these students had attended a
33 institutions.
pre-college orientation program sponsored by the. Arkansas
had gone
Enterprises for the Blind, while the other 28 students
Using the Tennessee Self
directly from high school to college.
post-test
Concept Scale, administered during a pretest and two
in this
sessions, Smith reported that, on 22 of the 29 subscales
instrument, students who had attended the program exhibited
In addition, he also
higher self-concept than those who had not.
reported that these same students exhibited lower levels of
anxiety and higher persistence at the end of their freshman year.
Meighan (1971) used the TSCS with visually impaired
He reported negative
adolescents from residential schools.
results for all the dimensions of self-concept measured by
Unfortunately, much of the potential strength
this instrument.
his
of these results is negated by the fact that Meighan compared
adolescent scores to norm group scores (which were based on a
sample of heterogeneous persons ranging in age from 12 to 68
exclusively
Thus, it may be questionable to compare an
years).
Head (1979),
adolescent sample with these diverse norm subjects.
using the same instrument, was not able to replicate Meighan's
He found no significant differences in
(1971) results.
6
various educational
self-concept for students who were placed in
social
settings in terms of personal self, physical self, or
self.
Piers-Harris Self
On the other hand, Coker (1979), using the
impaired
Concept Scale, found that his sample of visually
In a
sighted norms.
children exhibited bstter self-concept than
found that a sample of blind and
more recent study, Beaty (1992)
the
low-vision urban students exhibited self-concept scores on
In
sighted students.
TSCS lower than a comparison sample of
particular, the family self subscale and moral/ethical self
different.
subscale scores of these groups were significantly
these
Therefore, it is important to realize that the findings of
self-concept studies with visually impaired children and
At the present time it is not
adolescents are not in agreement.
determination as to w-ether or not the
easy to make a precise
self-concept/self- esteem of visually impaired youth is lower
sighted
than, higher than, or roughly equivalent to that of
This must therefore raise serious questions about the
peers.
validity of assuming that a deficit orientation is necessarily an
appropriate conclusion.
SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AND FUNCTIONING
Like personality research in the field of visual
impairment, studies on social functioning of visually impaired
inconsistencies.
youth are replete with contradictions and
9
7
opinion that at least two
However, there is some consensus of
(a) that
salient issues have emerged from these studies:
social
visually impaired persons have fewer and poorer
visually
experiences than their sighted peers and (b) that
sometimes hostile
impaired persons receive inadequate and
Thus, these opinions suggest
feedback from their sighted peers.
for interpersonal
that visually impaired youth may be at risk
This perspective on social
dysfunction (Ammerman, 1986).
towards an
adjustment is, like that on self-concept, oriented
non-disabled
essentially deficit vie-:;, of disabled versus
persons.
competence were carried
Many of the older studies on social
populations whose
out utilizing instruments designed to assess
social behavior were
levels of intellectual ability and adaptive
Little is gained by comparing developmentally
subnormal.
populations who are
delayed populations with visually impaired
It would not be overstating the
not developmentally delayed.
synthesis of the research on
case to say that Ammerman's (1986)
zulation of
visual impairment and social adjustment is an acc
which attempted to
many years of research from numerous sources
simply by
suggest that visually impaired persons are "deviant"
virtue of their specific handicap.
of
Much of the early research on the social functioning
Social
visually impaired youth was carried out using the Vineland
This scale was a measure of
Maturity Scale (VSMS) (Doll, 1947).
checklist of
general social competence consisting of a
10