EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND AND JOB ADJUSTMENT OF PRIVATE HOSPITAL PSYCHIATRIC AIDES

Seventeen educational criteria were examined to see if they differentiated between psychiatric aides whose job adjustments were rated as satisfactory, as opposed to those whose job adjustments were unsatisfactory or partially satisfactory, and those whose job adjustment was above average, as opposed to those who were rated as average or below. It was found that satisfactory aides were distinguished from others on only 3 variables, namely, academic honors in high school or college, participation in literary extracurricular activities in high school or college, and the mean number of extracurricular activities. The above average aides could be differentiated from the average and below average aides by the frequency of psychology or sociology majors if college graduates, by the frequency of having earned academic honors either in high school or college, by the frequency of having taken part in at least one extracurricular group, by the fact of having been members of student government, musical, and social service or religious activities in high school or college, by the average number of years of education, and by average number of extracurricular activities. It is concluded that the consistent evaluation of these educational criteria would assist materially in the selection of applicants who would likely make above average job adjustments as psychiatric aides in the present situation, but that it would be of less value in selecting those whose job adjustments would be at least satisfactory.