GLOBAL ADJUSTMENT SCALE

AIM

To assess the adjustment of the participant in six domains- social, educational/occupational, health,
sexual, emotional and family adjustment.

BASIC CONCEPT

Adjustment refers to the adequacy of the personal and interpersonal processes that we used to adapt to
our environment. A well-adjusted person is someone who engages in behaviors that are appropriate
for the culture and a given interpersonal situation. According to this view well-adjusted behaviors are
flexible and subject to change in the environment, produce no harmful effects on individual and other
people and do not lead to short term and long term interaction problems. Adjustment is a condition of
harmonious relationship between the social and the physical environment where in a person is able to
obtain optimum satisfaction for most of his needs and to meet fairly well the physical and social
demands imposed upon him. Hence adjustment is a process of making the changes needed or desired
in oneself and/or in one’s social and physical environment to experience what is termed as
adjustment.

The following five aspects of adjustment are of special importance:

a) Gaining skills through interaction with one’s world.
b) Degree of control over one’s daily life.
c) Redefining difficult situations in order to successfully meet the challenges of life.
d) Self-understanding, as it allows one to determine which life choices are most likely to result in
personal growth.
e) Ability to make accurate judgments about the people and places in one’s life.

PRELIMINARIES
Name-
Age-
Gender-
Educational Qualifications-
MATERIAL REQUIRED
1. Gas Manual
2. Response Sheet
3. Profile Sheet
4. Scoring Key
5. Pencil And
6. Eraser
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST
The Global Adjustment Scale has two forms, one for students (both school and college students age
ranging from 13-19 years) known as student form (Form S) and another for adult population (20 yrs
and above) known as the Adult Form (Form A). Presently we are using student Form which gives
reliable information about:
a) Family Relationships i.e. with the parents and siblings, with regard to freedom and cohesion in the
family.
b) Health i.e. about the physical functioning of the body.
c) Social Environment i.e. friends and acquaintances outside the home.
d) Emotions in terms of maturity and sensitivity.
e) School which focuses mainly on school life and academic involvement.
f) Sex related behaviour i.e. about sex related knowledge, anxiety etc.
The G.A.S. Form S seeks to obtain information about how well the student understands and has
learned to live with his feelings and emotions in his physical and social environment. It endeavors to
discover to what extent he is the master of his feelings. This form is used in personal counseling and
is very useful in locating the areas of maladjustment.
The test has established reliability, validity and norms.
PROCEDURE
a. RAPPORT FORMATION:
The participant was called inside the laboratory and was made comfortable. The participant
was briefed about the aim of the test. Once the participant was settled the test was started.

b. INSTRUCTIONS:
Copy from the GAS test booklet.

c. PRECAUTIONS:
i. The room should be well lit and well ventilated.
ii. There should not be any noise in the room.
iii. The seating arrangement should be comfortable.
iv. There is no time limit.
v. Instructions should be made clear to the participant.
vi. No item should be left unanswered.
vii. Proper rapport should be established before starting the practical.
viii. It should be made sure that only one answer has been marked for each question.
ix. It should be made clear to the participant that their answers must be marked inside the boxes.
x. Make sure that the key and questionnaire which is being scored are properly aligned; the
number in front of the questions on the scale should correspond with the number of the key.

d. SCORING:
a. The scoring procedure in GAS Form S is quite objective and simple. Transparent stencil
scoring keys are available for this purpose. The following steps are required for scoring.
b. The examiner should ensure that the participant has answered all the questions on the answer
sheet.
c. Each question has one and only one answer.
d. Place the scoring sheet over the answer sheet. Be sure that the outline box on the answer sheet
is aligned with the box on the answer sheet.
e. Please note that each answer scores either 2 or 1 as indicated by the numbers printed above
the circles.
f. Add these scores for each adjustment area and write it down at the bottom of the answer sheet
in the space provided for that area.
g. Convert the obtained raw score to sten scores by the procedure mentioned in the norm table.
Be careful to choose the appropriate norm table.
h. Plot these sten scores on the profile sheet provided with the test materials. Each bar indicates
one adjustment area.
INTROSPECTIVE REPORT

Written by the participant. How did the participant feel while doing the test? (This is to be written in
first person)

BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION

Examiner’s observation of the participant during testing. What were your observations while the
participant was taking the test? Comfortable/Nervous/Distracted/Asked a lot of Questions/Completed
the test on time).
RESULTS
DIMENSIONS RAW SCORE STEN SCORE INTERPRETATION
Emotional (Em) 8 2 EXCELLENT

INTERPRETATION
Important Instructions:
Write interpretation for each dimension with the help of the manual.
All the factors have to be interpreted separately.
Refer to page no 8-13 from the GAS Manual
One Sample is given below;
Before you start interpreting any factor, remember that low score means good/high adjustment and
high score means poor/low adjustment.

1. Emotional Adjustment: This factor covers emotions in terms of maturity and sensitivity.
The raw score of the participant is 8, which corresponds to the sten score of 2. This is an excellent
adjustment. This indicates that the participant is not highly sensitive. He may not show tendency of
day dreaming and may also not have unstable feelings of fear, anger, excitement etc. He may not
experience feelings of depression stemming from isolation and inferiority. He may also not get hurt
easily and frequent episodes of worry, anxiety and nervousness may not bother him.

CONCLUSION
Write the dimensions in which the participant scored high, average and low.

REFERENCES

a. GAS Manual

b. NCERT Textbook- XII