Adjustment level

Aim: To assess the level of adjustment of college student using adjustment inventory for
college going students

Introduction

In everyday life, frequent use is made of the word "adjustment” even though many are
unaware of the different meanings this word may have. For example, to some adjustment
connotes happiness and freedom from personal problems. To others it means an unhappy
conformity to group demands and expectations. Psychologists, too, think and write about
adjustment in different ways and do not always agree on which way is more meaningful. Before
considering the definitions of adjustment the concept of adjustment must be understood.

The concept of adjustment was originally a biological one and was a corner stone in Darwins
theory of evolution (1859). In Biology the term usually employed was adaptation, Darwin
maintained that only those organisms most fitted to adapt to the hazards of the physical world
survive. Biologists have continued to be concerned with the problem of physical adaptations
and many human illnesses are to be based on the process of adaptation to the stress of life.

Shaffer (1949), "Adjustment Is the relationship which becomes established among biological
heritage or organism, the environment and personality".

Skinner (1952), "Adjustment involves the organization of personality. This organization leads
to the stability that is an active adjustment of individual to his social and physical environment"

Munn (1956), "Adjustment is accommodating or fitting oneself to circumstances, as when we

As per the inventory there are 5 major areas of adjustments

1. Home adjustment, is the student's adjustive behavior towards their home conditions
pertaining to parameters such as home atmosphere, marital relationship of parents,
family finance, sibling relationships, and parents attitude towards adolescent's social
life.
2. Health adjustment, Sound health is the source of satisfaction and adjustment. The
person should be physically as well as mentally healthy. Physically and
mentally healthy person always feels herself well-adjusted in society then the unhealthy
one.
 3. Social adjustment, is an effort made by an individual to cope with standards, values and
needs of a society in order to be accepted. It can be defined as a psychological process.
It involves coping with new standard and value
4. Emotional adjustment, the condition or process of personal acceptance of and
adaptation to one's circumstances, which may require modification of attitudes and the
expression of emotions that are appropriate to a given situation.
5. Educational adjustment, Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values,
beliefs and habits which makes a person good citizen. Educational adjustment means
how an individual is imparting his duties towards his education and whether he is able
to get his goal or not.

Adjustment problems among college students

Adjustment patterns of students differ with their level of intelligence. College students have
adjustment problem in almost every area like home, health, social, emotional and educational.
As they have difficulties adjusting with parents, siblings, relatives due to shyness,
aggressiveness. They have academic adjustment problem due to new academic pattern,
environment and faculties. Motivation to learn, taking action to meet academic demands and
academic dissatisfaction are components of educational adjustment. Social adjustment is
important for students. Forming supportive network, managing new social freedom, home
sickness, loneliness are social adjustment problems. College going students suffer from health
adjustments a lot because of the college timing, peers, unhealthy food habits and many more.
They also suffer from emotional adjustment issues as they lack the ability to express and expect
the surge of emotions and feelings they go through.

Methods and Materials

 Name – Ankita
 Age – 19 years
 Gender – Female
 Qualification – Undergraduate

Material required
  Adjustment questionnaire
 Response sheet
 Adjustment manual
 Pen
 Pencil
 Eraser

About the test

The Adjustment Inventory for College Students AICS-ss was developed by A.K.P. Sinha and
[Link] in 1971. It has 102 items which are used to assess the Adjustment level of college
going students in 5 areas i.e. Home, Health, Social, Emotional and Educational. The items offer
‘Yes’ and ‘No’ responses against each one of them. The highest scores of the inventory varies as
per the specified areas depending upon the number of items. The high scores are specified
differently among males and females. High scores indicate very unsatisfactory adjustment
whereas low scores indicate excellent adjustment in particular areas. Reliability coefficient of
Adjustment Inventory was determined by using different methods. The reliability of the
inventory was found to be 0.94 on the basis of split-half method, 0.93 using test-retest, 0.94
hoyt’s method and 0.92 K-R Formula-20. These coefficients determine that the inventory has
high reliability. Validity coefficients were determined for each item by bi-serial correlation
method and only those items were retained which yielded bi-serial correlation with both the
criteria (1) total score, and (2) area score, significant at .001 level. Product moment coefficient
of correlation between the inventory scores and superintendents rating was obtained to be
0.58, significant at .01 level.

Control

1. Proper lightning was maintained.

Precautions

1. It was checked that the subject has answered all the items.
2. Subject should fill the questionnaire with its own personal consent.
3. Questionnaire must be handled with care.
Procedure

The subject was brought to the lab and was made to be seated comfortably after establishing a
proper rapport, following main instructions were given:

Instructions

“This is a test to assess your Adjustment level in five areas i.e. Home, Health, Social, Emotional
and Educational. You have to encircle your response against each item, the items has ‘Yes’ and
‘No’ response available. So, mark the option that suits you the best. There will be no correct or
incorrect answers for the items given. There will be no time limit to fill-up the questionnaire but
avoid pondering over any item for long. Please give the honest responses and don’t skip any of
the items as no one is going to judge your responses. The confidentiality of your results will be
maintained. So, if you have any problem in understanding any of the items than ask to me but
don’t manipulate it accordingly.”

Actual procedure

The subject was called to the lab and proper rapport was established and proper instructions
were given to the subject. The doubts of the subject were cleared before the conduction of
test. After the conduction was done, it was checked that the subject has answered all the items.
After that the result was obtained.

Result

As shown in the result table.

Result table
 S. No. Areas Scores Interpretation
1. Home 11 Very Unsatisfactory
2. Health 4 Average
3. Social 15 Very Unsatisfactory
4. Emotional 22 Very Unsatisfactory
5. Educational 5 Average

Discussion

The aim of the test was to assess the level of adjustment of college students using adjustment
inventory for college going students. Subject was called to the lab and proper rapport was
established. Proper instructions were given to the subject before the conduction of test and
after its conduction scoring was done by calculating the scores as mentioned in the manual. The
test contains 102 items that have been divided into 5 areas of adjustment. Scoring was done by
adding the scores of all the respective areas on the basis of the negative and positive responses
made by the subject as mentioned in the manual. Result and interpretation was made with the
help of manual as the scores and interpretation was found separately for each area. On the
basis on the scoring it was found that the subject has scored 11 in Home which means the
adjustment is very unsatisfactory and this can be interpreted as the subject needs counseling
and proper measures to deal with the adjustment issues, 4 in Health which shown that the
subject has average adjustment on the basis of the score it can be interpreted that subject
needs to work on the problems he/she is going through in order to make the proper
adjustments to improve the health adjustment issues, 15 in Social which means that the
adjustment is very unsatisfactory it can interpreted that the subject has problems in adjusting
to the surroundings and in being at the social events so he/she needs proper assisting and
counseling in order to reduce the adjustment problems, 22 in Emotional which means that the
adjustment is very unsatisfactory it can be interpreted that the subject needs to work on
his/her emotional issues and problems with the help of proper guidance and counseling in
order to lessen up these adjustment issues and 5 in Educational which means that the subject
has average adjustment it can be interpreted that the subject needs to work in educational
setting in order to make the adjustment good or excellent. By this it can be said that the subject
needs to work on his/her surrounding to make the adjustments better.

Summary
The aim of the test was to assess the level of adjustment of college students using adjustment
inventory for college going students. At first the subject was called to the lab and was made to
sit comfortably after that proper rapport was established. After that the test was administered
on the subject in the controlled situation. Then the score was calculated according to the
guidelines of manual and on the basis of the score interpretation was made. The subject scored
11, 15 and 22 in Home, Social and Emotional respectively which means that the subject has very
unsatisfactory level of adjustment and scored 4 and 5 in Health and Education respectively
which means that the subject has average level of adjustment. So, it can be concluded that the
subject needs to work on his/her ability of adjustments in order to smoothen his/her life.

References

Jain. P. (2017). Adjustment among College Students. International Journal of Advances in

Munn.N.L. (1956). The Fundamentals of Human Adjustment. London: George Harp and Co., Ltd.,
21.

Shaffer.L.F. (1949). The psychology of Adjustment. New York: Wiley and Sons, 3-4.

Sinha.A.K.P. & Singh.R.P. (1971). Manual for adjustment inventory for college students AICS-ss.
National Psychological Corporation.

Skinner. (1952). Educational Psychology. London: Staples Press Ltd., 102.