Adjustment & Maladjustment: Characteristics and Causes (2024)

What is “Adjustment”?

The term“adjustment”originates from the biological term “adaptation”.Biologists used the term “adaptation” strictly for the physical demands of theenvironment, but psychologists use the term “adjustment” for varying conditionsof social or inter-personal relations in the society.

Adjustmentmeans the reaction to the demands and pressures of social environment imposedupon the individual. The demand to which the individual has to react may beexternal or internal.

Psychologistshave viewed adjustment from two important perspectives—“adjustment as anachievement”, and“adjustment as a process”.

Adjustment as achievement:

‘Adjustmentas achievement’ means how efficiently an individual can perform his dutiesunder different circ*mstances.

If weperceive adjustment as achievement, we have to set criteria to judge thequality of adjustment. Four criteria have been evolved by psychologists tojudge the adequacy of adjustment. They are the following:

• Physical health
• Psychological comfort
• Work efficiency, and
• Social acceptance

Adjustment as process:

‘Adjustmentas a process’ lays emphasis on the process by which an individual adjusts tohis external environment. It is important, especially from teachers’ point ofview. Students' adjustment largely depends on their interaction with theexternal environment in which they live. They always try to adjust to it.Piaget has studied the adjustive process from different angles.

Piagetuses the termassimilationandaccommodationto represent the alternation of oneself or environmentas a means of adjustment.

A personwho carries his values and standards of conduct without any change andmaintains these in spite of major changes in the social climate is calledassimilator.

The personwho takes his standards from his social context and changes his beliefs inaccordance with the altered values of the society is calledaccommodator.

In orderto adjust successfully in society a person has to resort to both the devicesi.e.assimilationandaccommodation.

Characteristics of a well adjusted person:

A healthyand well-adjusted person should possess/display some observable behavioralpatterns. These behavioral patterns must be according to the socialexpectations of an individual. These patterns are as follows:

• Maturity in thinking
• Emotional balance
• Warm and understanding towards others
• Free from tension due to routine events
• Independent in decision making

Elements in adjustment:

There arecertain prime elements for fulfillment of needs necessary for healthyadjustment of a person. They are as follows:

• Satisfaction of needs
• No obstacle in achieving needs
• Strong motives in realizing needs
• Feasible geographical atmosphere to fulfill needs

What is Maladjustment?

‘Maladjustment’is a process whereby an individual is unable to satisfy his biological,psychological or social needs successfully and establishes an imbalance betweenhis personal needs and expectation of the society resulting in the disturbanceof psycho-equilibrium.

Characteristics of a Maladjusted Person:

As aschool teacher, you might have noticed a few such maladjusted students in yourclassroom too. At times, you might have even thought of seriously the reasonsfor their maladjusted behavior. There are numerous reasons in and out of theschool which create frustration, that lead to maladjustment. Let us analyze thesymptoms one by one. If a student is:

Withdrawnand timid:Frequentwithdrawals from difficult situations may make individual timid and weak infacing real life situations.

Shy andself-conscious:Shyness is usually associated with theself-consciousness, concern with the impression one gives to other people, andconcern with their negative evaluation. A shy individual has low self-esteemand tends to anticipate adversities, thus often keeping silent and avoiding eyecontact.

Fearful:Fear is a strong emotioninvolving perception of danger, unpleasant agitation and often a desire to hidefrom meeting students of higher classes, being alone in a room, and fear ofdogs, strange noises, the dark, etc.

Anxious:Anxiety is a personality trait.It results from conflict, which is an invitable part of life. Anxiety describesthe individual's level of emotionality. We see many students who are tense andworried (highly anxious) and those who are cool (hardly anxious). Since anxietyis an inferred emotional state of an individual, it cannot be directlyobserved. It can be measured through psychological tests/techniques.

Delusions:Delusion is an irrational andobstinate belief that the individual actively defends, e.g., a child does notwork hard for the final examination and thinks that it is the God only who canget him through the examination and he fails. This shows the delusion in himwhich makes him maladjusted.

Extremelyaggressive:Aggressive students show enterprising or energeticbehavior or tendency to be dominating in the class or the school. Sometimes anindividual fails to show the tendency of dominating in a social situation andhurts herself instead e.g. a child beats her doll, kicks the dog, or otherobjects.

Tension:When a person does not feel akind of inner freedom, the strain which results from muscular contradiction andthrough which muscles, tendons, etc., are stretched under a threateningsituation.

Highaspirations:A person has high hopes and aspirations for his futurelife. When the hopes are not achieved, he becomes unrealistic in life.

Feeling ofinferiority:A feeling of inferiority, arising from the sense ofimperfection and incompletion in a particular sphere of life, which motivatesthe individual to strive for a higher level of development and as such, are thecause of all improvement in life situations. Each time a new level of achievement is reached, inferiority feelings reappear, continuing to stimulate upward movement. If inferiority feelings become exaggerated by adverse conditions at home, physical or mental disorders on inferiority complex may develop which makes an individual maladjusted.

Emotionallydisturbed:If theinternal and external adjustment of a child is not achieved, he becomesemotional e.g., weeping, quarreling, nail biting, thumb sucking, etc. andbecomes maladjusted.

Isolated:Maladjusted children sufferfrom a feeling of isolation. This feeling does not allow them to mix andinteract with other members of class, school, family or society. In familieswhere parents are extremely busy and neglect their children, the childrendevelop a feeling of isolation or dejection. This makes them maladjusted.

Sensitivity:Maladjusted children are verysensitive. They get hurt easily e.g., on being teased by teachers in theclassroom or parents in the family, sarcastic remarks by peers, unwelcomeadvice by others, etc.

Temper-tantrums:When there is a bad-tamperedout-burst, this is known as a temper tantrum e.g., if a child does not get fairtreatment, sympathy, cooperation and freedom of action within reasonablelimits, he feels maladjusted.

Causes of Maladjustment:

We canclassify the causes of maladjusted behavior of adolescents under five maincategories. They are as follows:

1. Family

(a) Social

(b) Economic

(c) Psychological

2.Personal

3. School

4.Teachers

5. PeerGroup

1. Family:

It isobvious that the family as an institution has various functions to perform. Bydischarging their duties, parents indirectly fulfill the needs of theirchildren. There are certain significant causes: social, economic andpsychological, which contribute immensely to maladjusted behavior in children.

(a) Socialcauses:Accordingto Gibbian, the social problem of one generation is the psychological problemof the next generation. Children coming from homes that have been broken due todeath, divorce, desertion, separation, etc., are often maladjusted in theirbehavior.

Drunkardparents, strained marital relationship of spouses, quarrels and fights betweenspouses are also responsible for developing frustration in children. Suchchildren feel insecure and become maladjusted.

(b)Economic causes:The occupational status of parents, problems ofunemployment, poverty and low-economic status breed maladjustment amongchildren. Under such circ*mstances, parents are unable to satisfy the needs oftheir children which eventually lead to frustration, aggression and hostilebehavior in growing children.

(c)Psychological causes:Psychological instability of parents is directlyresponsible for maladjusted behavior of their off-spring. If parents areover-possessive, highly authoritative, unrealistic in their expectations,incompatible, abusive and prejudiced, this will have a deleterious effect upontheir children.

When thepsychological needs are not met, children get frustrated and develop problemslike nail biting, day-dreaming, fear of dark, lack of self-confidence,flickering of eyes, etc. Those parents who threaten, nag, punish and humiliatetheir children before others are directly responsible for their children'sisolated and rejected behavior.

2. Personalcauses:

It isobserved that individuals who are physically, mentally and visually handicappedreact abnormally to the situation. Even children with partial deficiency, suchas defective eye sight, poor hearing and impaired speech may find it difficultto adjust under normal situations. When they can not score well academicallycompared to their peers, they develop an inferiority complex. Finally, theyisolate themselves from others and indulge in day-dreaming.

3.School-related causes:

Children spend roughly seven hours a day in theschool. When growing children do not find ways and means to channelize theirenergy in a purposeful manner in the school, they exhibit in maladjustedbehavior. The school authorities, including teachers should organize variouscurricular and co-curricular activities to suit the needs of the growingchildren.

4.Teacher-related causes:

An imbalanced personality in the teacher has itsimpact on the behavior of the children. If the teacher is unfair, biased or notinvolved with the students, it certainly affects the mental health of thechildren in the school.

5.Peer-group related causes:

Another important factor that disturbs thepsycho-equilibrium of students is an unhealthy relationship with their peergroup. Normally, students ask earnestly for recognition from their peer groupduring later childhood and adolescence.

However,popularity among the peer group depends on various factors, such as good looks,athletic abilities, social class, academic performance, and special talents. Ifthe student lacks these qualities, he may fail to get status among his/her peergroup and gets frustrated and maladjusted.