ABSTRACT
The studies described in chapters 4–6 found that students with disabilities believed they had lower capacities to adjust to opportunities for self-determined gain than did students without disabilities. And the study described in chapter 7 found that students with blindness and visual impairment believed they had greater capacity to adjust to opportunities for self-determined gain than did students with deafness and hearing impairment. These findings are consistent with the prediction that differences in adjustment capabilities correlate with disability. The following argument from chapter 4 made this claim for students in special education. It linked their known histories of learning difficulty with ineffective adjustment and that adjustment with lowered prospects for self-determination.
School achievement is a function of adjustments to opportunities for learning gain.
Underachievement is due to inadequate adjustment to opportunities for learning gain.
Many students in special education underachieve.
Therefore these students adjust inadequately to opportunities for learning gain.
Self-determination prospects are a function of adjustments to opportunities for self-determined gain.
People who adjust inadequately to opportunities for gain have lower prospects for self-determination than do people who adjust adequately to those opportunities.
Many students in special education adjust inadequately to opportunities for gain.
Therefore these students are likely to have lower prospects for self-determination than are students who adjust adequately to opportunities for gain.
