Adjustment
From Enpsychopedia
A state of harmony resulting from bringing oneself into agreement with other individuals, or with a pattern, principle or ideal. Social adjustment is usually thought of as the ability to live in harmony with social norms and act successfully in one's society which practically amounts to a conformity to prevailing social standards, patterns, customs, beliefs and evaluations. So conceived social adjustment is widely considered a symptom of mental health, while social maladjustment is almost identified with mental disturbance. From the standpoint of the theory of positive disintegration this view is basically erroneous and the simple concept of adjustment is considered useless and misleading. Instead a distinction is made between positive and negative adjustment, and positive and negative maladjustment.
Negative or nondevelopmental adjustment means an acceptance of and conformity, without an independent critical evaluation, to the norms, customs, mores prevailing in one's social environment. Negative adjustment may also take the form of acceptance of one's actual needs and inclinations without attempts to modify and transform them creatively. This kind of adjustment is incompatible with the autonomy and authenticity of the individual. It does not yield any positive developmental results either for the individual or for the society.
Positive or developmental adjustment consists in correspondence with higher levels of development, that is to say, with a new hierarchy of values, consciously developed and subordinated to the personality ideal. While negative adjustment consists in undiscriminating adjustment to "what is" positive adjustment may be called adjustment to "what ought to be". Such adjustment is a result of the operation of the developmental instinct and implies the necessity of partial maladjustment to the prevailing social patterns as well as inner conflicts and tensions characteristic of the processes of positive disintegration (cf.). Positive adjustment attains its full, mature form only at the stage of secondary integration (cf.) in which inner conflicts decrease and fundamental agreement between personality and its ideal has been attained.
Positive maladjustment includes both partial adjustment to what is and increasing adjustment to higher levels of development. It consists of a conflict with, and a denial and rejection of those standards, patterns, attitudes, demands and expectations of one's environment which are incompatible with one's growing awareness of and loyalty to a higher scale of values. Positive maladjustment is a prerequisite to the development towards authenticity (cf.).
Negative maladjustment consists of a denial and rejection of social norms, customs, and accepted patterns of behavior, but not for the sake of a higher scale of values, but rather because of one's subordination to primitive urges and nondevelopmental, pathologically deformed structures and functions. In the extreme it takes the form of psychosis, psychopathy, and criminal activity.
References
- Dabrowski, K., with Kawczak, A., & Piechowski, M. (1970). Mental Growth Through Positive Disintegration. London: Gryf Publications. 162-180.
- Online: http://positivedisintegration.com/glos.htm