No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
Individuals with visual impairments experience not only challenges in their physical capacities but also challenges in their psychological capacities to adjust to their disabilities. On the other hand, there is no evidence currently that suggests significant, long-term personality trait differences between individuals with visual impairments and those who are sighted (Foulke, 1972; Vander Kolk, 1981). In a classic study by Bauman (1976) it has been suggested that visual impairments, congenital or adventitious, do not seem to be related to psychopathological personality disorders. Knowing that a person is partially or even totally tells us; nothing about that person's personality characteristics or personal adjustment to this physical condition. Consequently, the adjustment to a visual impairment is idiosyncratic. Bauman (1976) has argued against the contention that there is a blind personality type. Clinical practitioners must investigate the multiple dimensions of the personality dynamics of the individual with visual impairments on a case by case basis to make a determination whether their adjustment is normal or whether there are adjustment problems (Kirtley, 1975). Some research has shown that individuals with higher measured cognitive abilities may have a more positive adjustment to the visual impairment and that individuals who have had more rehabilitative education experience will also likely have a better adjustment. The factors that have been found to have the greatest impact on an individual's adjustment to visual impairment include the reaction of society, the community, important peer groups, and the personal coping style of the individual. It has been claimed (Lazarus & Strichart, 1986) that individuals with visual impairments have been socialized into a role that society and peers expect them to adopt. They criticize social agencies for providing only those services to the that fit predetermined expectations of their general needs as a group rather than as individuals. Common reactions of society, the community, peer groups and unsensitized clinical practitioners might include pity, rejection, and stereotyping. All of these reactions are unjustified and could be avoided with knowledge of specific clinical procedures that should be applied in the assessment of individuals with visual impairments. Individuals with congenital forms of blindness might experience normal adjustment reactions to the experience of being blind. These normal adjustment reactions might include among others, self-consciousness in public places (Tuttle, 1987), lack of socially appropriate behaviors, introversion in the presence of sighted individuals (Lowenfeld, 1981), denial of the difficulties imposed on them by the disability (Cook-Clampert, 1981), distorted body image (Foulke, 1972), feelings of helplessness (Bauman, 1976), and a rich fantasy life (Scholl, 1986). Common reactions of individuals who have been adventitiously blinded might include a need to redefine their self-concepts. Reactions to sudden blindness might parallel those stages often described in the death and dying literature (Kubler-Ross, 1969). If the diagnosis of the ophthalmic problem has a progressive component it may be that the individual will experience anxiety about the future status of his/her vision as well as the potential impacts on his/her lifestyle. While an individual's response to adventitious loss of sight is idiosyncratic and may be highly related to his/her adjustment status as a previously sighted individual, it may not be uncommon for practitioners to observe some of the following psychological reactions. These reactions may include denial, fear, anger, and a fall into helplessness and depression. Psychopathology occurs only when an individual overuses a reaction or uses a defense mechanism beyond the point of its adaptive utility. It is up to the clinical judgement of the rehabilitation counselor to determine when these reactions are no longer adaptive for the individual and should be thought of as an adjustment problem or psychopathlology. …
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.