review of related literature - shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1549/7/07_...
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REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE
Related literature of the present study is presented in this chapter
under the following heads:
1. THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF THINKING STYLES
2. THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL ADJUSTMENT
3. REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
1. Studies related to Thinking Styles
2. Studies related to School Adjustment
3. Studies related to Different Types of Styles and Adjustment
2.1 THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF THINKING STYLES
Interest in the notion of styles developed when the conventional
ability tests provide only partial answer for the question why people differ in
their performance. Personality differences influences the performance of
people in all fields they engage. But personality is not the entire answer. So
an interface between ability and personality was needed. The concepts of
emotional intelligence, social intelligence etc. are resulted from this need.
The notion of styles is also an outcome of the need to explain the individual
differences in performance.
According to Webster‟s new world dictionary, a style is “a distinctive
or characteristic manner… or method of acting or performing”. Royce (1973)
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viewed styles as consistent modes of cognitive and effective processing
which influence the way cognitive abilities and affective traits are related to
individual behaviour. Styles are seen as higher order traits: they influence the
way single traits are related to behaviour.
A style is a preferred way of thinking or performing. It is not an
ability, but rather a preferred way of using the ability one has. An ability
refer to how well one can do something. A style refer to how some one likes
to do something. Constructs of social, practical and emotional intelligence or
multiple intelligence expand our notion of what people can do. The construct
of style expand our notion of what people prefer to do; how they capitalize
the abilities they have. Sternberg et. al. (1997) argue that thinking styles are
important as or more important than abilities no matter how broadly abilities
are defined. How people prefer to think might be just as important or more
important than how well they think.
People do not have a style, but rather a profile of styles. They show
varying amount of each style but are not locked into any one profile. People
may be particularly identical in their abilities and yet have very different
styles. Styles can be varied to different tasks and situations. Styles are not
fixed but fluid. Various styles are not good or bad but only different.
Psychologists attempted to integrate to and extend the fragmented
research results displayed in various theories of styles. They tried to combine
several mini-theories of intellectual functioning, learning and personality and
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explained the ways in which people perceive and understand the world
around them and how they then translate that perception of the external world
into an internal representation within their minds. Sternberg (1997)
introduced a theory of mental self-government to combine the various
cognitive, learning and personality styles.
Mental Self-Government Theory of Thinking Styles-Robert. J.
Sternberg (1997)
Mental self-government theory of thinking styles was first introduced
by Sternberg et al in 1988. He and his associates developed this in to a
comprehensive theory of thinking styles by further studies and investigations.
The theory uses the government metaphor to explain how intelligence and
personality characteristics are organized and directed. Like governments,
individuals are characterized on the basis of observation of their preferred
functions, forms of organization, levels they function at, scope and leanings.
The basic idea behind the theory of mental self-government is that the
forms of government people have in the world are not coincidental. Rather
they are external reflections of what goes on in people‟s minds. They
represent alternative ways of organizing and thinking. Thus the forms of
government people see are mirrors of their minds. There are a number of
parallels between the organization of the individual and organization of the
society. Just as society needs to govern itself, people need to govern
themselves. People need to decide on priorities as does a government. People
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need to be responsive to changes in the world, as does a government. And
just as there are obstacles to change in government, so are there obstacles to
change within the people.
Thirteen different dimensions of thinking styles were identified under
five categories in this theory. In analogy to governments, people carry out
legislative, executive and judicial functions. Some individuals prefer to
follow rules and existing methods (executive style). Others enjoy creating and
formulating their own rules (legislative style). While still others like to judge
and evaluate rules, ways, ideas and procedures (judicial style). Government
govern themselves according to one of the following four types of
government: oligarchic, monarchic, hierarchic and anarchic. Applied to
mental self-government, these four styles concern the way a person organizes
information processing. Individuals with a monarchic style prefer to focus on
one goal at the time and address the next goal when the first goal is
completed. Individuals with an oligarchic or hierarchic style like to deal with
multiple goals. The former individuals have difficulty in assigning priorities
to the various goals, thus creating conflict and tension. The latter have a good
sense of priority. They prefer to work systematically. Individuals with an
anarchic thinking style tend to be motivated by a wide range of needs and
goals and are flexible in their approach. However, they have difficulty setting
priorities since they have no firm set of rules.
Governments also operate at different levels, such as the global or the
local level, and are therefore more concerned with either general or specific
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policy making. In analogy, individuals with a global thinking style prefer
general, abstract reasoning, pondering in the world of ideas, whereas
individuals with a local thinking style are more down to earth and oriented
towards the pragmatics of the situation. Governments also differ in scope
dealing primarily with internal and external issues. Likewise, individuals
with an internal thinking style differ from individuals with an external
thinking style, preferring to work independently from others. They are more
introverted and less socially sensitive than persons with an external style.
Finally, governments have a preference for liberal or conservative style and
so have individuals. Those with a liberal thinking style give preference to
tasks and projects and allow them to cover unexplored ground. They seek
rather than avoid ambiguous and uncertain stimuli. In contrast, individuals
with a conservative thinking style prefer familiar, non-threatening situations.
Together, these thirteen thinking styles can characterize individuals to a
greater or lesser extent.
Categories and dimensions of Thinking Styles in the mental self-
government theory of Thinking Styles is presented in Figure 1.
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An overview of the mental self-government theory of thinking styles
is given here.
Functions of Mental Self-Government
Roughly speaking, governments serve three functions- Executive:
Legislative and Judicial. The executive branch carried out the initiatives,
policies, and laws enacted by the legislative branch, and the judicial branch
evaluates whether the laws are being carried out correctly and if there are
violations of these laws. People also need to perform these functions in their
own thinking and working.
Legislative people like to come up with their own ways of doing
things and prefer to decide for themselves what they will do and how they
will do it. Legislative people like to create their own rules, and prefer
problems that are not prestructured or prefabricated. Some of the preferred
kinds of activities of a legislative stylist are writing creative papers,
designing innovative projects, creating new business or educational systems,
and inventing new things. Some of the kinds of occupations they prefer, all
of which let them exercise their legislative bent, are creative writer, scientist,
artist, sculptor, investment banker, policy maker, and architect.
The legislative style is particularly conducive to creativity, because
creative people need not only the ability to come up with new ideas, but also
the desire to. Unfortunately, school environments do not often reward the
legislative style. Indeed, even the training for occupations that require people
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to be creative often discourages the legislative style. Thus, a person might
find him – or herself in a science course, required to memorize facts,
formulas, and charts. Yet scientists almost never have to memorize anything:
if they don‟t remember something, they look it up on their bookshelf.
Creative writers also need a legislative style, but a legislative style is
not often encouraged, and is often discouraged in literature classes, where the
emphasis in the lower grades is likely to be on comprehension and in the
upper grades on criticism and analysis.
Executive people like to follow rules and prefer problems that are
prestructured or prefabricated. They like to fill in the gaps within existing
structures rather than to create the structures themselves. Some of the kinds
of activities they are likely to prefer are solving given mathematical
problems, applying rules to problems, giving talks or lessons based on other
people‟s ideas and enforcing rules. Some occupations that can be a good fit
to executive thinkers are certain types of lawyer, police officer on patrol,
builder of other people‟s designs, solider, proselytizer for other people‟s
systems, and administrative assistant.
The executive style tends to be valued both in school and in business,
because executive stylists do what they are told, and often do it cheerfully.
They follow directions and order, and evaluate themselves in the same way
the system is likely to evaluate them, namely, in terms of how well they do
what they are told. Thus, a gifted child with an executive style is likely to do
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well in school, whereas a gifted child with a legislative style is more likely to
be viewed as nonconforming and even rebellious.
Peer-group pressure encourages children to adopt an executive style as
well, but with respect to the norms of the peer group rather than of the
school. Thus, pressure from many sources can be lead students to adopt this
style.
Judicial people like to evaluate rules and procedures, and prefer
problems in which one analyses and evaluates existing things and ideas. The
judicial stylist likes activities such as writing critiques, giving opinions,
judging people and their work, and evaluating programs. Some of their
preferred kinds of occupations are judge, critic, program evaluator,
consultant, admission officer, grant and contract monitor and systems
analyst.
Schools often shortchange the judicial style. Although the work of a
historian, for example, is in large part judicial-the analysis of historical
events-many children get the idea that the work is largely executive-
remembering data of events. As in science, therefore, some of the ablest
students may decide to pursue some other field, even though the style of
thinking may be well suited not to their preparation for the career, but to the
actual career itself.
Problems of mismatching are not limited to the school. In many
business, including schools, lower-level managers are sought who have a
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largely executive style. They do what they are told, and try to do it well.
People with such a style are often then promoted into the higher levels of
management. The problem is that in the higher levels, a more legislative or
judicial style also becomes desirable. But many of the people with a more
legislative or judicial style may well have been derailed early in their
management careers, so that they never get to the higher levels of
management. People may be promoted to higher positions for which their
styles are not suited.
The Forms of Mental Self-Government
The theory of mental self-government specifies four forms:
monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic. Each form results in a
different way of approaching the world and its problems.
A monarchic person is someone who is single-minded and driven.
The individual tends not to let anything get in the way of his or her solving a
problem. Monarchic people can be counted on to get a thing done, given that
they have set their mind to it.
Monarchic bosses often expect tasks to be done, without excuses or
extenuating circumstances. When you get married to a monarchic individual,
you usually find it out quickly. You may see little of the person, and when
you do see the person, his or her mind may be elsewhere. If you, rather than
say, work, are the subject of a monarchic spouse‟s obsession, you may find
yourself receiving more attention than you expected.
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Monarchic children often encounter a problem in school: They usually
want to be doing something other than what they are doing and are like to be
thinking about the other thing while they are supposed to be attending to the
teacher. Sometimes, their interests are best served when a teacher (or parent)
brings whatever they are monarchic about to bear on other things they are
doing. For example, child who has a strong interest in sports but is not a
reader may become a reader if given sports novels to read. A child who loves
cooking but not math could be given math problems to do that involve
recipes. In these manner the child may become interested in things that
previously are of no interest.
The hierarchic person has a hierarchy of goals and recognizes the
need to set priorities, as all goals cannot always be fulfilled, or at least
fulfilled equally well. This person tends to be more accepting of complexities
than is the monarchic person, and recognizes the need to view problems from
a number of angles so as to set priorities correctly.
Hierarchic individuals tend to fit well into organizations because they
organize the need for priorities. However, if their priorities are different from
those of the organization, problems may arise. Then they may tend
themselves organizing their work according to their own, but not their
organization‟s priorities. The company lawyer who wants to spend too much
time on pro bono work, the university professor who wants to spend too
much time teaching, and the cook who wants each meal to be perfect but who
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takes forever in cooking the meals may soon find themselves unwelcome in
their respective organizations.
The oligarchic person is like the hierarchic person in having desire to
do more than one thing within the same time frame. But unlike hierarchic
people, oligarchic people tend to be motivated by several, often competing
goals of equal perceived importance. Often, these individuals feel pressured
in the face of competing demands on their time and other resources. They are
not always sure what to do first, or how much time to allot to each of the
tasks they need to complete. However, given even minimal guidance as to the
priorities of the organization in which they are involved, they can become as
effective or even more effective than people with other styles.
The anarchic person seems to be motivated by a potpourri of needs
and goals that can be difficult for him or her, as well as for others to sort out.
Anarchic people take what seems like a random approach to problems. They
tend to reject systems, and especially rigid ones and to fight back at whatever
system they see as confining them.
Although anarchic individuals may have trouble adapting to the
worlds of school and work, especially if the environment is a rigid one, they
often have greater potential for creative contribution than do may of the
people who find the anarchics so distasteful. Because anarchics tend to pick
up a little form here, a little from there, they often put together diverse bits of
information and ideas in a creative way. They are wide-ranging in the scope
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of things they will consider, and so may see solutions to problems that others
overlook. The problem for the teacher, parent or employer is to help the
anarchic person harness this potential for creativity, and achieve the self-
discipline and organization that are necessary for any kind of a creative
contribution. If this harnessing effort works, then the anarchic person may
end up succeeding in domains where others may fail.
Levels of Mental Self-Government
Global individuals prefer to deal with relatively large and abstract
issues. They ignore or don‟t like details, and prefer to see the forest rather
than the trees. Often, they lose sight of the trees that constitute the forest. As
a result, they have to be careful to get lost on “Cloud Nine”.
Local individuals like concrete problems requiring working with
details. They tend to be oriented toward the pragmatics of situation and are
down-to-earth. The danger is that they may lose the forest for the trees.
However, some of the worst system failure such as in aviation and rocketry,
have occurred when people have ignored what seemed at the time to be small
details. Thus, almost any team requires at least some local individuals.
Global and local people can work particularly well together, because
each attends to an aspect of task completion that the other would rather
forget. Two global people trying to complete a project may each want to deal
with the big issues, leaving no one to attend to the details; two local people
may find themselves without anyone to do the higher order initial planning
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needed to get the job done. It helps if neither individuals is so extreme that he
or she cannot understand and appreciate what the other to offer. Extreme
localists or globalists can get carried away and start to lose sight either that
the big issues exist, or that there are details that someone needs to attend to.
Scope of Mental Self-Government
Internal individuals are concerned with internal affairs- that is to say,
these individuals turn inward. They tend to be introverted, task-oriented,
aloof, and sometimes socially less aware. They like to work alone.
Essentially, their preference is to apply their intelligence to things or ideas in
isolation from other people.
An example of how teachers (or anyone else) can confuse style with
abilities is shown by the case of a kindergartner who was recommended by
her teacher for retention. When asked why she had made this
recommendation, the teacher pointed out that although the child‟s academic
work was quite good, the child did not seem “socially ready” for first grade.
That is to say, the child preferred to be on her own rather than to interact with
other children, which the teacher took as a lack of some kind of social
intelligence. In fact, the child was simply an internal. She was promoted, and
has done splendidly well both academically and in her social relations.
External individuals tend to be extroverted, outgoing and people
oriented. Often they are socially sensitive and aware of what is going on with
others. They like working with other people wherever possible.
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Many of the questions that arise in education as to “what is better?”
stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the interaction of styles with
learning experience. For example, in recent years, there has been a strong
push toward what is called “cooperative learning” which means children
working together to learn in groups. The idea is supposed to be that children
will learn better in small working groups than they will when they are left to
their own devices.
From the standpoint of the theory of mental self-government, there is
no single right answer to questions such as whether children learn better
individually or in groups, and indeed, this question, like so many others, is
viewed as misformulated. External children will prefer working in groups
and will probably learn better when learning with others. Internal children
will prefer to work alone, and may become anxious in a group setting.
This is not to say that internal should never work in groups or
externals, alone. Obviously, each kind of individual need to develop the
flexibility to learn to work in a variety of situations. But the stylistic point of
view implies that teachers, like students, need to be flexible in the way they
approach the teaching-learning process. They need to provide children with
both individual and group settings so that children can be comfortable some
of the time and challenged the rest of the time. Always providing the same
working setting tends to benefit some students and to penalize others.
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Leanings of Mental Self-Government
The liberal individual likes to go beyond existing rules and
procedures, to maximize change and to seek situations that are somewhat
ambiguous. The individual is not necessarily “politically” liberal. A political
conservative could have a liberal style in trying to implement, say, a
Republican agenda in a new and all-encompassing way. Thrill seekers tend to
have a liberal style, as do people who, in general, quickly become bored.
The conservative individual likes to adhere to existing rules and
procedures, minimize change, avoid ambiguous situations where possible,
and stick with familiar situations in work and professional life. This
individual will be happiest in structured and relatively predictable
environment. When such structure does not exist, the individual may seek to
create it.
Characterizations and examples of various dimensions of thinking
styles in the mental self-government theory of thinking styles are given in
Table 1.
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TABLE 1
Characterizations and Examples of Dimensions of Thinking Styles
Thinking
Style
Dimension
Characterization Example
Legislative Likes to create, invent,
design, do things his or her
own way, have little assigned
structure
Likes doing science projects,
writing poetry, stories, or
music, and creating original
artworks.
Executive Likes to follow directions, do
what he or she is told, be
given structure.
Likes to solve problems,
write papers on assigned
topics, do artwork from
models, build from designs,
learn assigned information.
Judicial Likes to judge and evaluate
people and things
Likes to critique work of
others, write critical essays,
give feedback and advice
Monarchic Likes to do one thing at a
time, devoting to it almost all
energy and resources.
Likes to immerse self in a
single project, whether art,
science, history, business.
Hierarchic Likes to do many things at
once, setting priorities for
which to do when and how
much time and energy to
devote to each.
Likes to budget time for
doing homework so that
more time and energy is
devoted to important
assignments.
Oligarchic Likes to do many things at
once, but has trouble setting
priorities.
Likes to devote sufficient time
to reaching comprehension
items, so may not finish
standardized verbal-ability
tests.
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Anarchic Likes to take a random
approach to problems; dislike
systems, guidelines, and
practically all constraints.
Writes an essay in stream –
of- consciousness form; in
conversations, jumps from
one point to another; starts
things but doesn‟t finish
them.
Global Likes to deal with big picture,
generalities, abstractions.
Writes an essay on the
global message and meaning
of a work of art.
Local Likes to deal with details,
specifics, concrete examples.
Writes an essay describing
the details of a work of art
and how they interact.
Internal Likes to work alone, focus
inward, be self-sufficient.
Prefers to do science or
social studies project on his
or her own.
External Likes to work with others,
focus outward, be inter-
dependent.
Prefers to do science or
social studies project with
other members of a group.
Liberal Likes to do things in new
ways, defy conventions.
Prefers to figure out how to
operate new equipment even
if it is not the recommended
way; prefers open classroom
setting.
Conservative Likes to do things in tried
and true ways, follow
conventions.
Prefers to operate new
equipment in traditional
way; prefers traditional
classroom setting.
The theory of mental self-government proposed by Sternberg is an
attempt to integrate and extend the fragmented research results displayed in
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various theories of styles. Stenberg‟s theory combines several mini-theories
of intellectual functioning, learning and personality. It has high potential for
generating hypotheses about the way students abilities and personality
interact in every day behaviour. For example, Sternberg hypothesized that,
the use of specific tests will favour students with certain thinking styles at the
expense of students with other styles. He predicted that multiple choice tests
would strongly favour students with executive and local styles but also those
students with internal and conservative styles. On the other hand, project
assessment would favour students who enjoy performing resource intensive
assignments. Sternberg also claimed that students with differing thinking
styles handle their limited resources in different ways. However, more
empirical work is needed on thinking styles before establishing the theory.
The present study is an attempt in this direction.
2.2 THEORETIAL OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL ADJUSTMENT
Life is a continuous process of adjustment (Tallent, 1978). Psychology
is defined as the science of human behaviour and behaviour can be better
understood if we know the process of adjustment. Adjustment is obviously an
important aspect of one‟s personality. In this sense, it is defined as the actor
process of harmonizing the personality with the demands of one‟s
environment.
Gates, (1963) say that the term adjustment refers both to a „process‟
and to a state. A person feel adjusted when his needs- physical, psychological
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and social- are satisfied. Therefore the adjusted individual is said to be
mentally sound, who seems to be happy in every walk of life. But when the
needs are incompatible with realities, they were not satisfied and the
harmony is destroyed resulting in maladjustment of the individual. Every
individual from birth through entire lifespan, attempts to adjust to his
environment and develops his own unique way of adjustment. It is an
accepted fact that the capacity for adjustment is influenced by their physical
and mental traits.
The Dictionary of Education defines adjustment as the “Process of
finding and adopting modes of behaviour suitable to the environment or to
the changes in the environment”. It is a process by which a person changes
his behaviour to achieve a harmonious relation between himself and his
environment. As the struggle between individual needs and external forces
starts from birth, adjustment also starts from birth and continues till death.
Adjustment is the characteristic way in which one perceives, reacts and
satisfies the major needs of his life or solves the main problems of his life in
relation to his natural and social environment. It is the capacity to solve one
person‟s problems in a constructive way without disturbing the social
harmony.
Adjustment has various facets like, health, social, emotional,
occupational, school, college adjustments. A large portion of our life is spent
in school and school experiences have a lasting effect-stimulating and
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rewarding for some and negative for others - but the influence is more deep
and divers than we realize. School adjustment is important among the various
facets of adjustment.
School is a place where students learn and develop their personality.
Today schools provide opportunity for alround development of the child.
How adequately students are adjusted to the situation determine alround
development, progress and future success of life. School Adjustment is
crucial in the future life of every person. One may have adjusted well to one
school but badly to the second. And within each school, one‟s adjustment
vary depending upon who the teacher and other students were and upon
many other factors in the classroom. If one went on to college, further
situational influences may be noted. Perhaps one may do well in a small
college near his/her home but floundered badly after transferring to a large
and more impersonal university or vice versa.
When a child is said to be making good school adjustment, it means:
i) He appears to be making satisfactory academic progress.
ii) He is able to establish satisfactory relationship with his teachers
and classmates.
iii) He appears to be making satisfactory academic progress and also
able to establish satisfactory relationship with his teachers and
classmates.
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By the first view, the student who achieves what he is expected to
achieve is considered as adjusted. The student who does not learn, who is
held back in grade or who drops out of the school before graduation fails to
meet this criteria of school adjustment. Achievement is determined by
considering the average achievement of other children of the class or grade
and child‟s adaptive or learning potential. Considering them, a brilliant child
who is doing only slightly better than average work would be making an
unsatisfactory school adjustment. A child of very limited potential might be
thought of as making satisfactory adjustment if his achievement was
commensurate with his ability.
By the second view, a child who gets along with his classmates and
his teaches is considered adjusted. A child who is unable to form satisfactory
relationships (for example, aggressive and unruly or overly shy and
withdrawing) is considered poorly adjusted.
In the third view, school adjustment is viewed as a combination of
academic achievement and social adequacy. Academic achievement and
social adequacy are mutually related. A child who is not achieving well may
have a number of personal problems. A child who has personal problem may
not achieve well also.
Stringer (1959) suggested that academic progress can be served as an
index of mental health and adjustment. He found children who start with only
a learning difficulty tend to develop other disturbances in the wake of their
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accumulating failures in the learning task and children with some other kind
of disturbances tend to develop learning difficulties as their disturbance leads
to inattention and disorganization.
The relationship between achievement in the basic academic skills and
school adjustment often becomes gyroscopic and mutually reinforcing. Those
children who are able to be successful are rewarded and find wholesome
satisfaction in what they are doing. They are friendly to school and its values
and are encouraged to invest more of themselves in their school activities.
Conversely those who are not successful in academic activities find little
reward in them, perceive themselves negatively and are thereby unable to see
the school or its activities in any constructive manner. The school to them
becomes an unfriendly and often prosecuting institution with little
opportunity for real satisfaction.
Maladjustment is the lack of adjustment in behaviour. Maladjusted
people solve problems usually in a destructive way and in this process
disturbs social harmony. Maladjustment is aroused from frustration and
conflicts. In school, boys are regarded to be more maladjusted than girls.
Boys are likely to act out their problems than are girls and therefore boys are
more likely to be considered adjustment problems by teachers.
Information about the adjustment of pupils may be gathered from
peers, teachers or parents. But teachers, pupils and parents does not hold the
same criteria of adjustment. Further, clinicians view adjustment in their own
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way different from parents, teachers and peers. Teachers are more concerned
about attacking or antisocial behaviour especially that which upset the
classroom. Clinicians on the other hand were more concerned about
withdrawing or asocial behaviour. Parents also hold the same view as
teachers and student‟s view on school adjustment show strong relationship
between emotional adjustment and academic success.
There are two different views about the place of adjustment in the
school curriculum. Traditionalists consider curriculum should focus on the
child‟s intellectual development and traditional areas of knowledge and skill.
They say it is difficult to define the concepts like adjustment and the energy
spent on such programmes not always proved fruitful. Some others with child
oriented and group oriented views think curriculum should focus on the
child‟s adjustment. They believe that, the child‟s present and future social
adjustment is of direct concern to the school and that should be reflected in
the curriculum.
In the past, the forces producing maladjustment have been thought to
be largely within the individual and help was sought in one-to-one treatment
programmes analogous to medical care by a physician. Later, adjustment
problems have been increasingly considered problems of interpersonal
relation. Such problems arise from the social interaction within the groups in
which the individual is involved and they are dealt within these same social
environments. Consideration of the students situations, surroundings, and
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groupings and emphasis on their individual needs improved a great deal in
the dealing of school adjustment problems of students.
There is no universal criteria for measuring adjustment. School
adjustment also vary from place to place, time to time and from institution to
institution. Factors leading to good adjustment of pupils in school are
diverse. As adjustment is important in the present and future life of every
individuals it is useful to identify the factors leading to school adjustment.
The present study on the relation of thinking styles and school adjustment of
secondary school pupils is believed to be worthwhile and relevant.
2.3 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
Various studies have been conducted by researchers in the areas of
thinking styles, school adjustment and related variables. The studies
reviewed by the investigator is given here under the following heads:
1) Studies related to Thinking Styles.
2) Studies related to School Adjustment.
3) Studies related to different types of styles and adjustment.
2.3.1 Studies Related to Thinking Styles
Douglas (1991) in a study on thinking styles and the writing group,
compared business communication students‟ thinking styles with the process
and products of collaborative writing groups. It was found that students with
identical thinking styles do not naturally team up in forming groups and
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thinking style is more important than academic major in influencing group
success. It was also revealed that thinking style variety within a group is
beneficial.
Sternberg (1994) conducted a study on 85 teachers (57 males and 28
females) in four schools of widely varying types to find out the thinking
styles of teachers. It was found that schools differed in terms of thinking
styles of the teachers. Lower grade teachers were found to be more legislative
and older teachers more executive, local and conservative.
Huang and Sisco (1994) compared the thinking styles of Chinese and
American adult students in higher education in a research on the thinking
styles of 150 Chinese and American graduate students. The analysis showed
that the Chinese students scored as more pragmatic than the American group.
Chinese men and American women scored as more idealistic than the
Chinese women and American men. The study also indicated that students of
natural science and engineering preferred the analytical thinking style most
and the synthesist style least.
In 1995, Sternberg and Grigorenko conducted a study to find out the
thinking styles of students between the ages of 12 and 16. The study was
conducted on a sample of 124 students. It was revealed that socio-economic
level related negatively to the judicial, local, conservative and oligarchic
thinking styles. Later born siblings were more legislative and a significant
match between student‟s and teacher‟s thinking styles was also found.
44
To address the question whether students do better in classrooms
where their thinking styles match rather than mismatch the thinking styles of
their teachers, Sternberg et al, conducted a study in 1996. Student‟s thinking
styles and teacher‟s thinking styles were assessed and it was found that
students performed better and are more positively evaluated by teachers
when the student‟s thinking styles matched rather than mismatched the
thinking styles of the teachers.
Grigorenko et. al. (1997) conducted a study on 199 high school
students from all over United States and from South Africa. The objective
was to find out when abilities are taken into account, whether styles still
predict academic achievement. It was concluded that thinking styles add
significantly to abilities in predicting school achievement.
In 2000, Fang examined the relationship between teaching approaches
and thinking styles in teaching. Seventy-six in-service teachers from
Hongkong responded to the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (Trigwell and
Prosser, 1996) and Thinking Styles Inventory in Teaching (Grigorenko and
Sternberg, 1993). It was concluded that teaching approaches and thinking
styles are two overlapping constructs.
Ross (2001), in an experimental study using slide viewing technique
developed by Buck et al, examined the relationship between thinking styles
and nonverbal sending and receiving ability. Participant‟s extraversion and
rational and experimental thinking styles were measured and they did not
relate to the encoding and decoding of spontaneous communication displays.
45
Nachmias and Shany in 2002, examined students learning in virtual
courses and the relationship between their performance and thinking styles.
Participants were 110 eighth and ninth graders who were enrolled in a three-
month virtual course on the retrieval and use of on-line information. The
findings showed that learners with liberal or internal thinking styles
outperformed the other students in the course.
Zhang (2002) investigated the relationship between thinking styles
and academic performance and modes of thinking among U.S. university
students. According to the study, the more creativity-generating and more
complex thinking styles were significantly related to holistic mode of
thinking, and the more norm-conforming and more simplistic thinking styles
are significantly related to an analytic mode of thinking.
Yeh, in 2002, conducted a study on preservice teachers‟ thinking
styles, dispositions and changes in their teacher behaviour. The study was
aimed to investigate the relationship between pre-service teachers‟ critical
thinking dispositions and three thinking styles (judicial, legislative and
executive) and their behaviour change in computer simulation. 178 preservice
teachers participated in the study. Findings suggested that preservice teachers
with a high level of critical-thinking dispositions and those with judicial or
legislative thinking styles are analytical and reflective vis-à-vis their teaching
practice, where as those with executive styles did not exhibit significant
behaviour change at the end of the simulated teaching.
46
Zhang (2002) investigated the relationship of thinking styles to modes
of thinking. Participants were 371 freshmen (aged 18 and 19) from the
University of Hong Kong. Thinking style inventory by Sternberg and
Wagner was administered on the sample. Major finding was that creativity
generating and complex thinking styles were significantly positively
correlated with the holistic mode of thinking but significantly negatively
correlated with the analytic mode of thinking.
Park et. al (2005) investigated the thinking styles of Korean gifted
students in Korea and examined whether thinking styles based on the theory
of mental self-government could predict scientific giftedness based on
Korean people‟s implicit concepts. Participants were 179 students from two
science high schools and 176 students from general high schools in Korea.
Thinking Styles Inventory (Sternberg and Wagnor, 1992) and Scientific
Giftedness Inventory (Shim and Kim, 2003) were administered. Korean
gifted students preferred legislative, judicial, anarchic, global, external, and
liberal styles whereas Korean non gifted students preferred executive
oligarchic and conservative styles. Thinking Styles were also found to be
significant predictors of scientific giftedness.
Novak and Hoftman in three comprehensive studies (2005) developed
and cross validated a new instrument for measuring experimental and rational
task specific thinking style. The study established congruence effects between
task-specific thinking style and the nature of the task on performance
47
outcomes. It showed that task-specific thinking style explains greater
variance than dispositional thinking style in predicting performance.
Wang et al. conducted a study on using agents and simulation to
develop adequate thinking styles in 2005. The investigators looked at human-
environmental interaction using internet mediated simulations as learners in
their efforts to develop thinking styles. One hundred and forty-nine
vocational high school students participated in this study. It was revealed that
it is possible to establish and support thinking styles via internet-mediated
simulations. More development was observed for judicial thinking style in
this system.
Echendu (2006) studied the thinking styles and cognitive preferences
of technical knowledge of workers in the system of innovation paradigm. The
sample compared 330 engineering, science and technology oriented
professionals in supervisory and middle to senior management positions in
South Africa. The study provided a ranking of preferred thinking styles for
engineering and technology management in the new paradigm. Logical,
problem solving, conceptualizing, analyzing and interpersonal thinking styles
were ranked in the top five.
Mc Coy et al. (2006) examined the relation of self reported criminal-
thinking styles and self reported illegal behaviour among college students.
Participants were 177 male and 216 female undergraduate students. Results
indicated that males who committed violent crimes against pupil endorsed
48
significantly higher levels of distorted criminal-thinking patterns. Female
participants who committed property crimes significantly elevated six of the
criminal thinking style scales.
In a study on the thinking styles of online distance education students,
Richmond et al. (2006) evaluated the thinking styles of 160 undergraduate
students from three universities enrolled in online distance education courses.
Sternberg-Wagner Thinking Style Inventory (1997) was administered and the
results indicated a disproportionate number of legislative and hierarchic
thinkers in online distance education courses.
Albaili (2007) examined the differences in thinking styles among low-,
average-, and high- achieving United Arab Emirate College students.
Thinking Styles Inventory was used to assess students‟ thinking styles.
Results indicated that low-achieving students scored significantly lower on
executive, hierarchic, anarchic, local, conservative, and internal styles. Low-
achieving students scored significantly higher on legislative, oligarchic and
liberal styles. A discriminant analysis revealed that executive and conservative
styles were the most discriminating factors that separated low-achieving
students from their high-achieving peers.
Vance et al. (2007) conducted on study on understanding and
measuring linear-nonlinear thinking style for enhanced management
education and professional practice. It was found that most people tend
towards one or other extremes of linear or non linear styles. It was also found
49
that people using either of the dominant thinking styles benefit from
interaction with people of the other inclination.
Sladek et al. (2008) conducted a study on thinking styles and doctors‟
knowledge and behaviours relating to acute coronary syndromes guidelines.
The relationship between thinking styles and the knowledge and clinical
practices on a sample of 74 doctors involved directly in the management of
acute coronary syndromes in Australia was investigated in the study. Self
reported doctor‟s thinking styles and surveys were used Results suggested
that guideline-discordant practice was associated with an experimental style
of thinking.
Empirical studies are a few in the area of thinking styles. The few
studies conducted by some research teams were not followed and investigated
world wide later. More attention and studies in the area of thinking styles is
needed.
2.3.2 Studies Related to School Adjustment
Sharma (1982) conducted a study on the adjustment and backwardness
of high school students. The study established boys and girls do not differ
significantly on adjustment scores. Backward and non backward students
who were average over other independent factors differed significantly from
each other on overall adjustment scores and adjustment of non backward, low
and middle creative students at different levels of SES contributed to making
the interaction significant.
50
A study was conducted with normative survey design on a sample of
603 prospective teachers drawn from seven teacher training institutes of
Varanasi by Rai in 1983. It revealed that the relationship between self
concept, adjustment and intelligence was positive and significant.
In 1983 Mehta conducted a study on 50 obedient and disobedient
students sorted out on the basis of ratings of the teachers according to the
criteria of obedience and disobediency. Critical ratios between total
adjustment of obedient and disobedient students was found to be significant
at 0.01 level, but insignificant differences existed between different areas of
adjustment that is home, health, emotional, social and college/ school
respectively of the two groups of subjects.
Nair investigated the role of different areas of adjustment in
underachievement in Biology of the secondary school students in 1984. After
comparing the mean scores of over achievers, normal achievers and
underachievers in the attitudinal and adjustment variables, it was concluded
that home adjustment, social adjustment and emotional adjustment are
influencing the achievement.
The study of Valsamma in 1984 showed that high mean scores of
personal, social and general adjustment variables were associated with
underachievers than normal and non underachievers in Biology.
Misra et. al. (1985) conducted a study on 100 students studying in
class X both male and female belonging to urban areas which revealed that
51
positive self concept leads to high adjustment and negative self concept to
poor adjustment and also showed that the specific model of self concept is
more useful in adjustment process.
In 1985, Rajput conducted a study on values, dependency and
academic adjustment of students. The sample size was chosen to be 42 for
each of six groups (boys and girls in each faculty-arts, commerce and
science). The entire sample was selected from the higher secondary schools
of Mandvi, Bhuj and Gandhidam districts. It was found that academic
adjustment was not meaningfully related to academic achievement.
Personality traits, values, self concept, mental make up and adjustment
of normal and physically handicapped children were studied by Bala in 1985.
sample of the study consists 1000 students with the age range of 12-18 from
Haryana State. It was found that handicapped children differed significantly
from the normal children in adjustment.
Sami (1986) studied the relationship between creativity, self
awareness and self adjustment of university students. Study revealed the
relationship between high creativity and high self adjustment was positive
and moderately significant and between low creativity and low self
adjustment was positive and very significant.
A study of self concept of high school students at different levels of
adjustment and SES was conducted by Gupta in 1986. It was revealed that
highly adjusted person having better, stable and integrated self concept than
the low adjusted subjects.
52
In 1986, Singh selected a sample from the office of the Board of
Secondary Education, Orissa, Cuttack the size of the student sub-population
of Class XIth
each of three zones; central, western and southern was obtained.
The study concluded that achievement in mathematics was not related with
adjustment.
An investigation was carried out to find the relationship between
intelligence, SES, anxiety, personality, adjustment and academic
achievement by Mehortra in 1986. The sample of the study consisted of 535
class X students and the tool used was Saxena‟s Adjustment Inventory. The
study revealed that there was positive relation between level of adjustment
and academic achievement.
Singh selected 166 students (boys) of scheduled castes as the sample
in 1987 and reported that the first generation learners had more problems in
comparison to subsequent generation learners in the areas related to
adjustment to school work.
Ushasree (1990) conducted a study with a sample consisted of 200
pupils studying in Xth
class pupils identified with behaviour problems and
100 pupils without behaviour problems. She found that high scorers on
adjustment were found to achieve high. Also, vice versa was not found to be
true. She also implied that academic achievement was not the only factor that
determines high scholastic achievement and it is a pre-requisite for scholastic
achievement.
53
Arnold and Atkins conducted a study about the emotional adjustment
of children in 1991. Hearing impaired children integrated during in primary
schools were the subjects. It was concluded that students faced social
problems than emotional problems.
Reynolds (1991) in a study examined the factors contributing to the
early school adjustment of children at risk of school failure from pre school
enrollment to fourth grade. A longitudinal model was used on a sample of
1,255 low-income minority children. Results indicated that children‟s school
achievement from kindergarten to fourth grade was marked by declining
achievement, frequent moves from one school to another and increasing
grade retention.
In 1993 Bindu conducted a study on a sample of 645 students
including hearing impaired and normal. Self concept, social adjustment,
personal adjustment and socio-personal adjustment of the subjects were
measured. The study indicated significant differences in the mean scores of
various adjustment for the total sample and relevant sub samples.
Personality and adjustment as correlates of burnout among the
secondary school teachers of Kerala was analyzed by Haridasan in 1993.
Sample for the study consists of 500 secondary school teachers selected from
various districts of Kerala. Correlation analysis of personality and adjustment
with total burnout showed that significant correlation exist in the personality
factors and some adjustment factors and total adjustment.
54
Carol (1996) examined the social adjustment of deaf adolescents
enrolled in segregated, partially integrated and mainstreamed settings.
Partially integrated students reported better adjustment than mainstreamed
students with deaf peers; mainstreamed students reported better adjustment
than partially integrated hearing peers; segregated students showed the
lowest levels of adjustment over all.
A comparative study was conducted by Kantroo (1997) to analyze the
social and personal adjustments of high, average and low creative pre-degree
students of Dakshina Kannada District. Sample for the study consists of 1060
pre-degree students of 18 government and non-government colleges in
Dakshina Kannada District. The mean scores of the high creative, average
creative and low creative pre-degree students in the personal adjustment
variables were compared and it was found that many of the variables were
discriminating between the different creativity levels.
Israelashvili (1997) conducted two studies on how students school
adjustment and sense of school membership relates to their future
expectations. Measures of future expectations, school membership and
school adjustment were administered to a random sample of 307 5th
-12th
grade students (male and female) in the first study and 164 female students in
the second studies support the conclusions that students school experiences,
particularly with peers shape their future expectations.
Jyothi and Reddy (1999) analyzed the personality factors, adjustment
and self-ideal discrepancy of 230 deaf students belonging to 14 to 20 age
55
group. Results revealed that there are no significant difference in personality,
adjustment and self ideal discrepancy between the sub samples.
In 1999 Choi, et al. surveyed the depression of adolescents and
studied its relationship with school adjustment. The study was conducted on
a sample of 572 students in a coed high school in Incheon. The results
revealed that the relationship between depression tendency and school
adjustment was statistically significant (P<0.001). The relationship between
depression tendency and school life related adjustment, school environment
related adjustment, school environment related adjustment, school friend
related adjustment, school teacher related adjustment and school instruction
related adjustment were statistically significant.
Mathur (1999) conducted a study on the social and academic school
adjustment during early elementary school. Participants were 186 children
and 11 teachers in second grade and 188 children and 11 teachers in third
grade. Data were drawn from teacher ratings, child interviews and parent
questionnaires. It was found that school adjustment is compared of both
social adjustment and academic adjustment. Results suggested that school
adjustment in third grade is multi dimensional and transactional in nature.
Bhattacharya (2000) examined the school adjustment process among
South Asian children who had immigrated to the United States with their
parents. Data were collected from 75 parents and 75 children in separate semi
structured interviews. It was concluded that parental encouragement to
56
succeed in conjunction with teachers‟ efforts, can be used to facilitate
children‟s school adjustment.
Yadav (2000) conducted a study on socio-emotional school climate in
relation to adjustment among 32 visually impaired and 32 sighted students.
Sinha and Bargava Socio-Emotional School Climate Inventory and Asthanas
Adjustment Inventory were administered on the sample. It was revealed that
visually impaired had more favourable perception of their socio-emotional
school climate and also showed better adjustment to school climate as
compared to sighted students.
In 2002, Peixoto and Mata studied the participation in extracurricular
activities and school adjustment among the 955 adolescents attended the 7th
,
9th
and 11th
grades in Portuguese school system. Results revealed major
effects for the participation in extracurricular activities on some dimensions
of school adjustment. Under achievers are found to be more benefited from
these participation than others.
Zhou et al. in 2003 compared the school adjustment of first-generation
Chinese-American adolescent with that mainland Chinese and European
American adolescents. Perry and Weinstein‟s conceptual model of school
adjustment was used for the study. Results indicated that Chinese-American
adolescents reported more negative attitude towards teachers than European,
American and mainland Chinese students.
57
Zettergren (2003) investigated the school adjustment in adolescence
for previously rejected, average and popular children. Ninety age 15 boys
and girls who at age 10 and 11 were sociometrically rejected, popular, or of
average popular, or of average popularity constituted the sample. The results
show that the rejected children are at risk group for school problems also
over a long period of time. Chances of future adulthood adjustment problems
for the peer-rejected children are high than others.
In a comparative study of normal and hearing impaired secondary
school pupils in the integrated system of education, Usha (2003) studied the
school adjustment, self-concept and mathematics achievement in a sample of
700 secondary school pupils in Kerala. It was found that percentages of
normal pupils experiencing better adjustment group is higher than the
percentage of hearing impaired having better adjustment. The percentage of
hearing impaired pupils experiencing poor adjustment group was found to be
higher than the percentage of normal pupils having poor adjustment.
In a two year longitudinal study (N=242), Wentzel et al. (2004)
examined relations of having a reciprocated friend and characteristics of a
reciprocated friend to students‟ social and academic adjustment to middle
school. With respect to having a friend, 6th
grade students without friends
showed lower levels of prosocial behaviour, academic achievement, and
emotional distress than did students with reciprocated friendships.
58
Cheung et al. (2005) compared 21 university students admitted by
high school recommendations with 29 classmates admitted by traditional
means with respect to various dimensions of adjustment. It revealed no
significant effect due to non traditional admissions on the students
adjustment in academic, social and personal-emotional aspects.
Peixoto (2005) studied the parental attitude towards academic
achievement and academic adjustment in adolescence. Participants were 756
students attending 7th
, 9th
and 12th
grades. A positive association was found
between process centred attitudes and academic self-concept and self-esteem,
performance centred attitudes were negatively correlated with academic self-
concept, self-esteem and academic achievement.
A study of the relationship among locus of control, well-being,
emotional intelligence and life adjustment of the elementary school students
was conducted by Lee in 2005. The study utilized questionnaire and fourth
and sixth grade students in Kaohsiung and Tainan consisted the sample. It
was found that girls‟ school adjustment and interpersonal adjustment was
better than the boys. School Adjustment of fourth grade students were found
to be better than that of sixth grade students.
Maatta et al. (2007) conducted a longitudinal study on achievement
orientations, school adjustment and well-being. The participants were 734
Swedish adolescents (335 boys and 399 girls). The results showed that a
decrease in depressive symptoms and an increase in engagement with school
59
predicted a more to the use of optimistic and defensive-pessimistic groups
whereas a reverse pattern predicted a more to the helplessness and self-
handicapping groups.
Patwardhan and Vanitas studied about the adjustment of Indian girls
in relation to menstruation in 2007. Sample of 100 ninth grade girls from
girls‟ school and from co-education school were included. Data were
collected using Personal Information Schedule, Adjustment Inventory and
Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ). In general, girls were found to be
properly adjusted and exhibited fairly positive attitude towards menstruation.
Girls from two types of schools exhibited similar adjustment.
In 2007, Coplan studied the socio emotional characteristics and school
adjustment of socially withdrawn children in Indian schools. Participants
were 929 elementary school-aged children in New Delhi and teachers rated
child social and academic achievement at school. The results indicated that
compared with their average counterparts, socially withdrawn children
reported greater loneliness and depressive symptoms were rated by teachers
as more anxious and were more likely to be rejected by peers.
Yu and Minggui investigated the relationship between five dimensions
of perceived school climate and school adjustment for middle school students
in 2007. specific relations have been found between different dimensions of
perceived school climate and school adjustment. Gender effect between
perceived school climate and adjustment exists, especially in teacher student
60
relationships, academic pressure and adjustment. The influences of perceived
school climate on school adjustment is by direct or indirect method, in which
school attitude play mediator effect for some relations.
Dinhigra et al. (2007) conducted a study of certain selected variables
related to selected hearing impaired children. Fifteen hearing impaired
children in the age group of 10-17, their parents, siblings and teachers
comprised the sample. It was revealed that 54% of the children were
moderately adjusted, 33% of the children negatively adjusted and the
remaining 13% in between the two groups.
Hines (2007) investigated the differences between adolescent boys
and girls from divorced families adjustment to the middle school transition.
The findings showed that girls from divorced families were more adjusted to
the academic and social characteristics of the middle school transition than
were boys from divorced families. Girls from divorced families were less
adjusted to making friends than were boys from divorced families.
Chen and Li (2007) in a study, examined the contributions of
depressed mood to social and school adjustment in Chinese children. It was
found that depressed mood was stable over the two year duration of the
longitudinal study and the depression contributed negatively to later social
and school achievement and positively to the development of adjustment
difficulties.
Flook and Fuligni (2007) examined the implications of stress in
adolescent‟s daily lives, and looked at the spill over between daily family
61
stressors and school problems among an ethically diverse group of 589 9th
grade students in Los Angeles area. The study found that teenagers who
experienced family stress had school adjustment problems not only the next
day, but two days later.
2.3.3 Studies Related to Different Types of Styles and Adjustment
Franz and Dembo (1984) conducted a study on the relationship of
stress in teacher‟s work environment to teachers level of cognitive
complexity and their career maturity. A total number of 112 teachers and
student teachers participated in the study. Paragraph completion test, Crites
career maturity inventory, work life inventory, were administered. It was
revealed that stress in the work environment of urban elementary school
teachers is associated with their cognitive complexity.
Cognitive resources in 165 non demented older adults with the age 60-
100 were estimated in a study conducted by Poon et al in 1992. Five clusters
of results were found concerning age differences, the role of every day
experiences, influence of physical and mental health on cognitive performance,
personality and cognitive factors and levels of intelligence affect. It was
concluded that cognitive resources were important contributors to successful
adaptation for oldest-old.
Gelade (1995) conducted an investigation on creative style and
divergent production of adults in which the cognitive style, creative thinking
and adjustment to environment were studied. One hundred and fifty six
62
adults completed the Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory as well as
Guilford‟s Consequences and Alternate Uses Tests. Compared to the
adaptors, innovators produced a higher number of uncommon responses on
the consequences test and produced more responses on the Alternate Uses
Test.
Learning styles and adjustment issues of 35 international students in a
business administration programme were analyzed in a study conducted by
Ladd and Ruby (1999). The study revealed most desired warm personal
relationships with instructors and the primary learning modes in their home
countries was lecture. It was also found that most of them preferred direct
contract with materials and a majority were classified as neutral learners on
the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory.
In a study conducted by Heng (2000) to measure the role of practical
intelligence in intellectual giftedness, cognitive style and adjustment to
environment of the VIIIth
- grades were assessed. Sample consisted 296 gifted
and mainstream students from Singapore. It was revealed that regardless of
academic ability, children high in practical intelligence displayed a
heightened sense of self and keener awareness of the hidden curriculum and
larger goals of the school.
Perry et. al (2001) conducted a longitudinal field study on college
students in which cognitive style, emotional adjustment, and students
adjustment were some variables among others. Two measures, perceived
academic control and action control were administered to college students.
63
High-control, high-failure-preoccupied students out performed the other
groups by one to two letter grades.
The study on achievement strategies in school, its types and correlates
conducted by Matta et al. (2002) explores the cognitive styles and students
adjustment of an unselected sample of Swedish adolescents. Six groups of
adolescents were identified according to the strategies they developed.
Results showed that membership in functional strategy groups was associated
with well being, school adjustment and achievement and low levels of norms
breaking behaviour.
CONCLUSION
Review of related studies showed that many investigations have been
conducted in the related areas. Adjustment, achievement and other academic
problems have been analyzed on the basis of intelligence, creativity,
personality, cognitive style etc. But it was found that no attempt was made to
analyze them on the basis of a construct like Thinking Styles. Most of the
earlier studies related to styles were limited to separate dimensions of
cognitive styles, learning styles and personality styles. It was found that it is
a need to view styles in totality. Further, no studies are conducted in India to
measure the Thinking Styles of secondary school pupils. So the investigator
feels that the study to analyse the Thinking Styles of secondary school pupils
in Kerala and to find out the influence of different styles on School
Adjustment will be a relevant one.