Summary
This study calls attention to the impracticability of placing all the feebleminded under institutional care and to the desirability of developing extra-institutional programs to provide social supervision and conditions of living in the community which will render the feebleminded most effective at the least cost and the least hazard.
The measurement of social competence of the feebleminded under certain types of extra-institutional care shows that patients now successfully treated in this way have social ages significantly above the mental ages and appreciably more so than for the feebleminded in general. Presumably the empirical methods used in the selection of these patients reflect the importance of this fact. There is a presumption that the use of such a standard measuring device as the Vineland Social Maturity Scale will increase the efficacy of these selections. There is good reason to assume that extra-institutional placement capitalizes competence to better advantage than does institutional care in some directions, and possibly less in others, but the extent of these differences is not clear from this preliminary investigation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Anonymous: Colony Number, Training School Bulletin, 12:33–52, April, 1915.
Bernstein, Charles: Colony and Extra-Institutional Care for the Feebleminded. Mental Hygiene, 4:1–28, Jan., 1920.
Doll, Edgar A.: Community Control of Mental Deficiency in the United States. Journal of Mental Science, 79:578–89, Oct., 1933.
Doll, Edgar A.: The Measurement of Social Competence. Proceedings of the American Association on Mental Deficiency, 1935. Pp. 103–126.
—: Preliminary Standardization of the Vineland Social Maturity Scale. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 6:283–93, April, 1936.
—: Social Adjustment of the Mentally Subnormal. The Journal of Educational Research, 28:36–43, Sept., 1934.
—: The Vineland Social Maturity Scale: Revised Condensed Manual of Directions. Publication of The Training School at Vineland, N. J., Dept. of Research, Series 1936, No. 3, April, 1936.
Ecob, Katherine G.: New York State's Accomplishments and Immediate Aims in Extra Institutional Care of Mental Defectives. Proceedings of the American Association for the Study of the Feebleminded, 29:20–31, 1925.
Fernald, Walter E.: The Massachusetts Farm Colony for the Feebleminded. Proceedings of the Conference of Charities and Correction, 1902. Pp. 487–90.
Fox, Evelyn: Community Schemes for the Social Control of Mental Defectives. Mental Welfare, 11:61–74, July, 1930.
Hoakley, Z. Pauline: Extra-Institutional Care for the Feebleminded. Proceedings of the American Association for the Study of the Feebleminded, 27–28:117–37, 1922–23.
Johnson, Alexander: Adventures in Social Welfare. Fort Wayne Printing Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Chapter 5, pp. 210–21, 1923.
Knight, George H.: The Colony Plan for All Grades of Feebleminded. Proceedings of Conference of Charities and Correction, 1892. Pp. 156–60.
Mastin, Joseph T.: The New Colony Plan for the Feebleminded. Proceedings of Conference of Charities and Correction, 1916. Pp. 239–50.
Pollock, Horatio, (Editor): Family Care of Mental Patients. State Hospitals Press, Utica, N. Y., Chapter 7, pp. 115–35.
Vaux, Charles L.: Family Care of Mental Defectives. Proceedings of the American Association on Mental Deficiency, 1935. Pp. 168–89.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Doll, E.A., Longwell, S.G. Social competence of the feebleminded under extra-institutional care. Psych Quar 11, 450–464 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01562916
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01562916