SURVEY OF ATTITUDES, IOB SATISFACTION
AND TRAINING SUGGESTIONS OF ‘
ATTENDANTS IN MENTAL RETARDATION
2 . TRAINING SCHOOLS

Thesis for the Degree of M. A.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
KAREN M. LOUNSBURY
1972

.....

 

 

LIBRARY

Michigan State
University

 

 
 

BIKER“: BY
none a sane
annx emum mc

‘ unma" amoans
C

     
     

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

SURVEY OF ATTITUDBS, JOB SATISFACTION AND
TRAINING SUGGESTIONS OF ATTENDANTS IN
MENTAL RETARDATION TRAINING SCHOOLS

By
Karen M. Lounsbury

A survey was made of attendants in two mental re-
tardation training schools. Suggestions for attendant job
training, attitude toward mental retardation, personal his-
tory variables and job satisfaction ratings were obtained
from the Ss. Their immediate supervisors made ratings of
perceived job satisfaction for the attendants.

Cluster analysis procedures revealed four relatively
independent main factors: 1) attendants' training suggestions
rated for number of responses, originality, practicality and
completeness; 2) job satisfaction; 3) attitude about segre-
gation of retarded individuals via institutionalization; and
4) tenure related variables.

The results were discussed in terms of the ability of
attendants to specify job training programs, the lack of
relationship between attendant job satisfaction and supervisor-
perceived job satisfaction, and the lack of relationship be-

tween tenure and personal history or job satisfaction scores.

   
 

I

C

APProved: -7,r .1 /'¢¢:Za<e//

1/
Date: ZL’JI’flQZf/(f/C /0 /fZ-.Z_

SURVEY OF ATTITUDES, JOB SATISFACTION AND
TRAINING SUGGESTIONS OF ATTENDANTS IN
MENTAL RETARDATION TRAINING SCHOOLS

By
n,n'
(:1

Karen M. Lounsbury

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Psychology

1972

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks go to the following persons for assisting
and advising me in the course of this study: John Lounsbury,
Cindy Null, Gudrun Gale, Lou Tornatzky.

I am grateful for the c00peration of Mr. Ivan Estes
of the Michigan State Department of Mental Health, Mr. Albert
L. Meuli of Lapeer State Home and Training School, and es-
pecially to Mr. Lloyd Adams of the Mt. Pleasant State Home
and Training School, without whose help the study could not
have been completed. I would also like to acknowledge the
attendant nurses and supervisors who participated in the
study.

Special thanks are in order for my thesis committee
who were supportive throughout the ordeal: Dr. George W.
Fairweather, Dr. Ellen Strommen, and particularly my thesis

chairman, Dr. John P. McKinney.

ii

TABLE OF

List of Tables

List of Figures
INTRODUCTION .

PURPOSE

METHOD . .
Subjects . . . . . . . . . .
Materials . . . . . . . . .
Procedures

RESULTS . . . . . . . .
Cluster Analysis . . . . .
Rated Training Suggestions
Job Satisfaction .

Segregation- Exclusion Attitude .

Tenure . . .
Object Cluster Analysis

Accuracy of Supervisor' 5 Perceived

Job Satisfaction . . . . .
DISCUSSION . . . . . . . .
Attitude . . . . .
O-Analysis
SUMMARY
LIST OF REFERENCES
APPENDICES

APPENDIX A:

B: Training Suggestion Rating Procedure

C: Sample Rated Responses for Attendants'
Training Subbestions . . .

iii

Attendant Nurse Survey . . . .

CONTENTS

Page

vi

10
13

15
22
22
22
26
29
31
34
35

41

46
46
52

53

APPENDIX D:

E:
F:

Page
Attendant Cover Letter . . . . . . . . . 56
Supervisor Cover Letter . . . . . . . . . 57
Typological Classification of Subjects

Based on Object Cluster Analysis:
Minor O-Types o o o o o o o o o o o o o 58

iv

Table

LIST OF TABLES

Areas of training need as seen by professional
and attendant personnel from Barnet and
Bensberg (1962) . . . . . . . .

Composition of the oblique clusters . . .

Correlations between oblique cluster domains

Correlations between tenure and training sug-
gestion ratings . . . . . . . . . . .

Correlations between attendant Satisfaction
scores and supervisor satisfaction scores

Page

19
20

25

30

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure

1. Per cent of attendant sample obtaining
each of the possible ratings on the
originality rating scale. . . . . . .

2. Per cent of attendant sample obtaining each
of the possible ratings on the prac-
ticality rating scale . . . . . . .

3. Per cent of attendant sample obtaining each
of the possible ratings on the completeness
rating scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4. Mean value of composite scores by cluster for
S5 in types 1 through 4

5. Mean value of composite scores by cluster for
S5 in types 5 through 7

vi

Page

16

17

18

27

28

INTRODUCTION

Within the past fifteen years, and particularly
within the past decade, increasing attention has centered on
the role of the institutional attendant in mental retardation
institutions (Gardner and Giampa, 1971). One of the major
reasons for greater interest in the attendant is the reali-
zation that she must be prepared to carry out some of the
duties formerly considered to be the responsibility of the
professional, while professionals are finding it necessary
to spend increasing amounts of time serving consultant and
leadership functions (Bensberg and Barnett, 1966). While it
has long been intuitively apparent that the attendant would
be a highly influential person in the patient's life, since
the attendant is the one with whom the patient has twenty-
four hour contact (Dinnage and Pringle, 1967), a little con-
trolled research had been done before the 1960's (Gardner,
1967).

With this realization of the importance of the attend-
ants role in effective treatment for the residents have come
studies demonstrating the need for training programs (for a
summary, see Bensberg and Barnett, 1966), attempting to iso-
late demographic, attitudinal and personality variables in

attendants judged by supervisors as contributing to effective

attendant performance (Monsky, 1963; Clelend g£_al., 1967;
Butterfield, Barnett, and Bensberg, 1966; Efron and Efron,
1967), and implementing and evaluating training programs
(Schmidmayer and Weld, 1971; Gardner and Giampa, 1971; Bens-
berg and Barnett, 1966).

More specifically, attempts to isolate effective
attendant variables have taken various forms. Monsky (1963)
surveyed eXperience, working conditions and attitudes in a
large sample of child service attendants in England. The
attendants complained mainly of long hours, the majority of
which was spent in domestic work rather than directly with
the children; uneasy relationships with other staff members
was also mentioned, while low pay was near the bottom of the
list of complaints. High turnover rate was listed as a
major problem by supervisors in the same study. It is this
problem of high turnover rate that several researchers have
studied. Clelend g£_al. (1967) attempted to find out which
demographic and personality variables were correlated most
highly with longest tenure for attendants in a training
school for the retarded in Texas. They found the variables
most highly correlated with tenure to be rural origin and
birth order--in this case, non-firstborn. This finding did
not change when they analyzed the findings on the basis of
shift (day, evening, night shift) the attendant chose; how-
ever, correlations between tenure and rural origins were

higher for night shift attendants than for either of the

other two grOUps of attendants. They suggest that early ex-
posure to social deprivation in rural attendants may make
them better able to deal with the social deprivation en-
countered in the work situation.

However, tenure--expressed negatively as turnover
rate--may not be a powerful predictor of effectiveness as an
attendant. Butterfield, Barnett and Bensberg (1966) attempted
to determine which institutional characteristics influenced
turnover rate among personnel. They found turnover rate to
be independent of working conditions, with about fifty per
cent (n2 = .47) of the variance in turnover rate accounted
for by economic climate of the counties in which the insti-
tutions were located, which included the factors of unemploy-_
ment rate and the population change of those counties. When
the unemployment rate is high, turnover rate is low; when
population increase is high with greater immigration into the
county, turnover rate is high. This suggests that the stand-
ard approach of attempting to discuss turnover rate in terms
of institutional characteristics and attendant variables may
be questionable.

Presence of eXperience and amount of training in
dealing with mental retardation may both play parts in de-
termining how an attendant views mental retardation. Using
an experimental p0pulation of special education majors and
special education teachers against a control p0pulation of

college students, Efron and Efron (1967) developed an

attitude scale about mental retardation by means of which
they isolated six factors: personal exclusion, cultural
deprivation, hopelessness, segregation via institutionali—
zation, non-condemnatory etiology, and authoritarianism.
The three groups did appear to demonstrate differences in
attitude according to the amount of special education train—
ing and amount of on the job experience each group had had.
They found that special education teachers did not score as
highly on the authoritarian scale as the control pOpulation,
but the students in special education were less authoritarian
than the teachers. Both the students and the teachers had
less of a tendency to see retardates as necessarily insti-
tutionalized and segregated from the mainstream of society
than the control group; and the students were more hopeful
about retarded individuals than either the control group or
the teachers. Assuming that the teachers and the special
education students were initially from the same population,
it does appear that the on-the-job experience makes them
more authoritarian and less hOpeful, but have less of a
tendency to see retardates as necessarily institutionalized.
Although the previous study did not use an attendant
population, the results may still show some support for use
of training programs in that some training did appear to
make a difference at least in attitude for the special edu-
cation majors as Opposed to the control p0pulation. Imple-

mented training programs for attendants have taken the form

of classes, newsletters, group encounter techniques (Bens-
berg and Barnett, 1966); "intensive training", defined as a
combination of inservice training, cross-staff exchanges of
ideas, regular supervisor-administration-aide meetings,
"thereby decreasing the variance in attitudes and improving
care, training and treatment of residents" (Schidmayer and
Weld, 1971). Although all programs mentioned report positive
changes in attendant attitudes and behavior, each makes the
assumption that someone other than the attendant knows best
what training is required of the job--be it immediate super-
visor, social worker or staff psychologist.

None of the above mentioned studies asked for the
attendants Opinions when it came to determining training
procedure. The only study that reports asking the attendants
what kinds of training they might find useful was Barnett
and Bensberg (1962 mimeo, reported in Bensberg and Barnett,
1966) who surveyed attendants in 26 institutions. They did
not quantify the data but reported that attendants ranked
training areas needed differently frOm professionals (see
Table 1). Attendants are never asked to rate their own per-
formance as attendants, however. While they have been di-
rectly asked if they are satisfied with the job to some
extent by asking them to list their objections to the job
(Monsky, 1963), the most common expression of job satisfaction

has been that felt to be implicit in turnover rate.

Table 1. Areas of training need as seen by professional
and attendant personnel from Barnett and Bensberg
(1962 mimeo, reported in Bensberg and Barnett,

 

 

 

(1966)
Professional Attendant
Training Area Mean Rank Mean Rank
Physical care 2 2
History and causes of mental
retardation 6 1
Ward management techniques 5 5
Emotional development 1 3
Interstaff and Public relations 4 6
Patient development and
training 3 4

 

Butterfield, Barnett and Bensberg (1966), however, have
demonstrated that this may not be a very meaningful measure,
since almost half of the variance in turnover rate can be
accounted for by variables independent of either attendant

personality or institutional variables.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study, then, was to survey
the attendants own view of their jobs, their past training
programs, their attitudes toward mental retardation, and
their suggestions for job training of attendants, and to
relate these measures to demographic information. A second
purpose of the study was to determine how well immediate
supervisors can predict attendants' job satisfaction.

Specifically, some differences were expected to
appear between the §S'Wh0 had just started working as Opposed
to those who had been working in the institution for years
in attitude toward mental retardation (see Efron and Efron,
1967), and particularly in the ratings given and suggestions
made for training programs. While the high experience at-
tendants may not feel they need more training, they may have
practical suggestions to make for a training program for
other attendants. The low experience Ss,'while perhaps not
able to make practical suggestions, may have more innovative
ideas, having not been exposed to the-institutions patterns
for as long, and being closer in time to their own training.
It was possible to test whether or not the S5 with the

longest tenure are the most satisfied with their jobs;

also, demographic variables were analyzed, together with the
above mentioned variables by means of a cluster analysis
(Tryon and Bailey, 1970) to discover possible relationships
to job satisfaction and tenure. By comparing attendants in
different locations of this state (Michigan) it was possible
to see if there were differences due to location; for this
purpose a more rurally located institution (Training School
I) was compared to a less rurally located institution )Train-

ing School II).

METHOD

Subjects

Volunteer attendant nurses, civil service ratings
03 and 05, on day shift in two Michigan State Home and Train-
ing Schools for the Mentally Retarded were used as §5- The
two training schools from which the Ss were surveyed were
picked from the 5 training schools in Michigan on the basis
of more rural location (Training School I) and less rural
location (Training SchoolIJJ, estimated by population density
of the location of the training school and proximity to a
large, urban area, from the five training schools in the
state of Michigan. Approximately 156 attendant nurses are
employed on the day shift at Training School I, and approx-
imately 250 at Training School II. A return rate of 40 per
cent was obtained for Training School I and 43 per cent for
the second institution, yielding a total return of 172
questionnaires.

The following is a list of characteristics of the
attendant SS, broken down first between schools, before a
total statistic is given for the entire sample:

a. Age: Training School 1, average is 37.32 years;

aining School II, average age is 41.79 years.
Overall, average is 40.15 years.

10

Sex: Training School I, males--24 per cent, females--
76—per cent. Training School II, males--29 per cent,
females--71 per cent. Total sample, males--27 per
cent, females--73 per cent.

Education level: Training School I, high school di-
ploma (12.52 years); Training School II, high school
diploma (12.12 years). Total sample, high school
diploma (12.24 years).

 

Tenure: Training School I, average number of years
15 6.76; Training School II, average number of years
9.27 years. Total sample, average is 8.30 years.
The difference in mean tenure between the two train-
ing schools is significant at p f .01.

Previous.job training: Training School I, 89 per
cent had had some previous job training, while 11

per cent had not. Training School II, 86 per cent

had had job training, 14 per cent had not. Total

flagple, 87 per cent had had training, and 13 per cent
a not.

 

One measure, the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was

filled out by the immediate supervisors of the attendants.

While sixty percent of the JDI's were returned by the super-

visors, only 75 forms were able to be matched with completed

questionnaires of attendants.

Materials

 

The following measures were taken for each partici-

pating attendant nurse (S), which she (he) filled out herself:

1.
2.
3.

Personal History Questionnaire
Suggestions for Training of Attendant Nurses
Efrons' Attitude about Mental Retardation Scale

Job Descriptive Index

11

A copy of the questionnaire is shown in Appendix I.

A Personal History Questionnaire was written for
this study, which obtained demographic data from the Ss,
including sex, age, education, number of years employed at
the Training School, previous employment, plus other perti-
nent information listed in Fairweather (1967, p. 86).

Suggestions for Training is a short, five item fill-
in scale of Openended and semi-Openended questions designed
for this study. It obtained Ss' opinions on the following
information:

1. What training, if any, S received (described).

2. If S thought it was or was not (would or would not

beT usefu1.

3. If S was planning a training program, would it be a)
priOr to working, b) on the job only, or c) a com-
bination of the two.

Duration of the suggested program in weeks.

S listed descriptions of the suggested program, and
explained how she would go about setting it up.

01-h

Item 1 was rated for number of descriptions, and was
used as a baseline for the originality index in item 5.
Items 2, 3, and 4 were simply coded as S responded. Item
5 was rated for four things: 1) number of suggestions, 2)
originality of suggestions on a scale of 0-6; 3) practicality
of implementing the suggested program on a scale of 0 to 6
and 4) completeness of the suggested program also on a scale
of 0 -6. For a detailed account of the bases for rating and
rating procedures, see Appendices B and C. The ratings were

done by two trained, independent raters obtaining inter-rater

12

reliabilities for the three scales as follows: originality,
r = .93; practicality, r = .85; completeness, r = .89;
with average reliability of r = .89.

The Efrons' Attitude about Mental Retardation Scale
is a fifty-six item, six-point Likert continuum comprised of
items from the California F scale, Opinion about Mental Ill-
ness (OMI) Scale (Cohen, 1962), as well as items written by
Efron and Efron. The scale has six factors: segregation
via institutionalization, cultural deprivation, non-condem-
natory etiology, personal exclusion, authoritarianism, and
hOpelessness. Using a criterion of factor loading equal to
i .40, thirty-eight items were selected for use in this
study.

The Cornell Job Descriptive Index (JDI) is a five
scale measure of job satisfaction (Smith, 1965). A series
of written words are presented to S and he is asked to re-
spond to each on paper in the following manner: "Y" is
written next to the item if that item describes that partic-
ular.aspect of his work, "N" if it does not, and "?" if S
cannot decide. A satisfaction score was obtained for the
five scales (work, supervision, people, pay and promotion)
by adding up the number of "satisfied" responses for each
scale (a Scoring key is provided in Appendix A). A total
satisfaction score was obtained by summing the scores for
the five scales. The scale correlates highly with other

measures of job satisfaction (Smith, 1965).

13

Procedure

 

The State of Michigan Department of Mental Health
personnel office granted permission to contact the two in-
stitutions. An introductory letter was then sent to the two
superintendents of the training schools, briefly explaining
the study and requesting their cooperation in distributing
the preaddressed, stamped questionnaires to the day-shift
attendants. Further details of the distribution procedure
were then arranged by phone.

Each attendant and immediate supervisor was provided
with a questionnaire and cover letter, which provided in-
structions for completing the questionnaire and mailing it,
as well as a general explanation of the purpose of this
study (see Appendices D and E). Questionnaire packets for
each attendant were numbered with a corresponding number
appearing on each supervisor's JDI form for perceived satis-
faction for that attendant. Supervisors were asked to pencil
in the attendant's name at the top at the time of distribu-
tion, fill it out at home, then erase the name before mailing
the form. All subjects were thereby assured relative ano-
nymity, although four attendant Ss tore off the corner of
their questionnaires before mailing them.

In both attendant and supervisor cover letters, an
offer for a c0py of the results of the study was made and a

card requesting information was provided to return with

14

the questionnaire. Similar offers to share the results were
made to the State Department of Mental Health as well as to
the Superintendents of the two training schools.

In an effort to gather information about non-volunteer
Ss (those not returning the questionnaire), a request was
made in the cover letter asking the attendants to answer, at
least, the personal history questions and return that portion,
even if they did not wish to complete the rest of the ques-

tionnaire. However, none responded to this request.

RESULTS

Relative frequency of originality, practicality
and completeness ratings of the training suggestions are
shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3. As can be seen from the figures,-
originality and completeness ratings appear to be fairly
normally distributed, but practicality ratings are skewed
left. In other words, the ratings given attendants for the
practicality measure were generally high. Examples of each

of the measures are given in Appendix B.

Cluster Analysis

 

Since the variables of particular interest in this
study were the rated suggestions for training, Tryon and
Bailey's (1970) method of Cluster Analysis was employed to
test the relationships among these variables, and among
tenure, job satisfaction, attendant attitude, and attendant
personal history variables. Specifically, a V-Analysis was
used to define the empirical clusters, yielding eight clusters,
followed by a preset analysis. The preset analysis allowed
the cluster of particular interest, rated training sugges-
tions, to be placed in a position of primary importance--as
the first cluster--and included three other clusters from

the original V-Analysis. These were selected on the basis

15

16

50

40

30

 

20

 

PER CENT

 

10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ORIGINALITY RATING

Figure 1. Per cent of attendant sample obtaining each of
the possible ratings on the originality rating
scale.

17

SO

40

 

30

 

20

PER CENT

 

10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O 1 2 3 4 S 6
PRACTICALITY RATING

Figure 2: Per cent of attendant sample obtaining each of the
possible ratings on the practicality rating scale.

18

50

4O

3O

 

20

PER CENT

 

 

10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMPLETENESS RATING

Figure 3: Per cent of attendant samfile obtaining each of
the possible ratings on t e completeness rat1ng.
scale.

19

Table 2. Composition of the oblique clusters.

 

 

Item Loading

 

CLUSTER l RATED TRAINING SUGGESTIONS Reliability

Comprehensive rating .90
Originality rating .75
Practicality rating .74
Number of training suggestions .53
CLUSTER 2 JOB SATISFACTION Reliability
Total satisfaction 1.00
People satisfaction .73
Supervision satisfaction .71
Work satisfaction .66
Promotions satisfaction .45

CLUSTER 3 SEGREGATION-EXCLUSION ATTITUDE Reliability

Mentally retarded children should live

in special institutions .90
Most mental retardates are better off

in an institution with others of

their kind. .83
Retardates should live among themselves

and everything should be done to help

them live happy lives. .66
Separate schools for the retarded would

provide them with the special programs

they need. .52
It is unfair to the normal children to
have retardates in the same classroom. .49

It would be kinder to establish separate
communities for retardates where they

would not feel so out of place. .41
CLUSTER 4 TENURE Reliability
Age of attendant .81
Number of years worked at institution .72

A mental retardate cannot live just as
useful a life as a normal person .42

.83

.89

.83

.74

 

20

Table 3. Correlations between oblique cluster domains.

 

 

 

CLUSTER . l 2 3 4
l. RATED TRAINING

SUGGESTIONS -
2. JOB SATISFACTION -.11 -

3. SEGREGATION/
EXCLUSION -.14 -.27 -

4. TENURE -.17 .14 .32 -

 

21

of, a) amount of variance accounted for by the cluster, b)
cluster reliability, and c) whether or not the content of
each cluster was of primary interest in this study.

In general, for both the empirical V-analysis and
the preset analysis, variables were excluded from clustering
whose factor loading was below .40 and whose communality was
below .20; these cutoffs are determined by the Cluster
Analysis program. Twenty-six of the 72 variables failed to
meet these requirements in the V-analysis, while 55 variables
failed to meet them for the preset analysis. Thus, the
results tend to support the hypothesis that the obtained
clusters, described below, are very specific in nature, and
exclude most demographic and supervisor-perceived satisfaction
scores, as well as many of the attitude items.

The preset analysis yielded four clusters shown in
Table 2, which account for approximately 64 per cent of the
variance in the original correlation matrix. All four clus-
ters are fairly reliable, and seem to be dealing with distinct,
independent concepts. The generally low intercorrelations,
illustrated in Table 3, between the clusters support this
observation

The four clusters are described as follows:

22

Rated Training Suggestions

Cluster 1 deals specifically with the training sug-
gestions each attendant made. Suggestions were rated for
completeness, originality and practicality as well as the
number of suggestions made, and all of these variables
cluster together with a cluster reliability of .82. This
cluster accounts for 13 per cent of the variance in the

original correlation matrix.

Job Satisfaction

 

This cluster includes the subscale scores from the
Cornell Job Descriptive Index (JDI) as well as a total sat-
isfaction score, and has a cluster reliability of .89. It
accounts for about 14 per cent of the variance. One subscale
from the JDI, the Pay scale, was not included and is of
interest in that it might be indicative of the lack of vari-
ability of response across all attendants--most reported low
satisfaction scores for the pay scale. It may also be,
however, that pay is not an important variable in job satis-

faction for this population.

Segregation-Exclusion Attitude

 

The segregation-exclusion cluster (Cluster 3)
accounts for 25 per cent of the variance and has a cluster
reliability of .83. It is completely composed of items from

two of the original Efron and Efron factors, namely the

23

segregation via institutionalization and personal exclusion
factors. Together, these items comprise the idea of segre-
gation-exclusion of the retardates from the rest of society.
Attendant scoring highly on this cluster would be likely to
have attitudes condoning segregation of retarded children,
and the items'include.sOme rationalizatiOn fOr this,'such

as the item: ‘UIt is unfair to'normal children . . . ."

Tenure

This cluster is composed of only three items: number
of years at the training school, age, and score on one
"hopelessness" attitude item. This cluster has the lowest
reliability of any of the preset clusters, but is still
within an acceptable range. The presence of the hOpeless-
ness item lends some support to the Efron and Efron (1967)
hypothesis that people working with retarded children score
higher on that type of factor the longer they work with
them, although the other hopelessness items did not have
sufficient communality to cluster with these items.

The tenure cluster accounts for 12 per cent of the
variance in the original correlation matrix, but was main-
tained as a cluster of interest because of the original hy-
potheses about relationship of tenure with the other vari-
ables, particularly the rated training suggestions.

The intercorrelations between the clusters are also

of interest. It was predicted that practicality and

24

originality ratings would be related to tenure, but the low
observed correlation between Cluster 1 and the tenure cluster
(Cluster 4) of r = -.13 does not support this hypothesis.
This hypothesis and the apparent lack of support for it can
be observed in greater detail in Table 4, and will be dis-
cussed later. Suggestion ratings show a similar lack of
relationship with job satisfaction (r = -.09) and attitude
about segregation of retardates from society (r = -.ll).

A minimal, but significant (p < .05) relationship
appears to exist between job satisfaction and attitude about
segregation of retardates (r = -.27). The negative nature
of this relationship indicates that a high satisfaction
score would be aSSOciated with a low segregation score, or
opposition to segregation of retardates from society.

A positive relationship (r = .32) appears to exist
between favoring segregation and tenure, which might be
interpreted in one of two ways. First, in order to justify
working there, attendants begin to favor institutionalization
of retardates, or it may reflect attitudinal differences
between different aged people in society.

Cleland g£_gl. (1967) found correlations between
tenure-related variables and family size. In support of
this finding, a factor loading of .31 was obtained for the
item "number of children" on the tenure cluster. This might

be reflecting the age differences in the sample rather than

25

Table 4. Correlations between tenure and training sugges-
tion ratings.

 

 

No. Years Worked

 

(Tenure)
No. descriptions -.03
Originality rating -.08
Practicality rating -.01
Completeness rating -.10

 

.OS
** p = .01

a-
“U
II

any direct influence of family size on tenure. Since
"number of brothers and sisters" had a factor coefficient
of -.09, it looks as though observed age differences between
attendants may account best for this relationship.

Ruralism of the institution was also predicted to
be positively associated with tenure, and the institutions
were selected with their settings in mind. A significant
positive correlation (rpbi = .58, p < .01) was observed
between the single variables school and tenure, which would
indicate that, if anything, the opposite is taking place.
The attendants-in the less rural setting had longer tenure,
on the average, than the attendants in the most rural insti-

tutions.

26

Object Cluster Analysis

 

An object cluster analysis (O-Type Analysis, Tryon
and Bailey, 1970) was performed on each attendant's scores
on each of the four preset clusters. The analysis transforms
these cluster scores to standard scores, imposing a mean of
50 and a standard deviation of 10 on the distribution. The
purpose of the O-type analysis is to differentiate Ss into
profiles or types of scores on the clusters of variables,
defining each cluster in terms of high (greater than one
standard deviation above the mean), medium (within one
standard deviation of the mean) or low (greater than one
standard deviation below the mean). Mean values of standard
scores for individuals showing the same cluster score profile
constitute an O-type.

The main results of the O-type analysis in the present
study are presented in Figures 4 and 5. The mean value of
standard scores for each cluster are shown in Figures 4 and
5 for each of seven types (O-types). Thirteen other "minor”
O-types, encompassing 66 Ss, were generated by this analysis
but were discarded because each of their memberships consisted
of less than 5 per cent of the total number of S5 in the
study (172). The results for the minor O-types are presented
in Appendix F. The profiles of cluster scores for 22 in-
dividuals were so unique that they did not belong to any

of the O-types.

64

62

6O

58

56

54

52

SO

48

46

44

42

4O

38

36

34

32

27

................................ + 1 st. dev.

 

 

SO

-_--_-----..-_--- ................... X

TYPE 1

TYPE 3

1 st. dev.

0 TYPE 4

l I I _l

V '

 

Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4

Figure 4. Mean value of composite scores by cluster for Ss

in types 1 through 4.

64

62

60

58

56

S4

52

50

48

46

44

42

4O

38

36

34

32

 

28

. dev.
50
TYPE 7
P'"”"--"""-"---'---------------~-1.st.dev.

 

I I 1 J
Cluster.l Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4

Figure 5. Mean value of composite scores by cluster for S5

in types 5 through 7.

29

The seven profiles illustrated in Figures 4 and 5
can be labeled on the basis of the cluster on which individ-
uals represented by that profile scored beyond one standard
deviation away from the mean (mean composite scores of 60
or higher or 40 or lower). These seven profiles are there-
fore labeled (in order of O-type number): low training
suggestion ratings; low satisfaction; low segregation
scores; low tenure; medium scores; high segregation scores;

and high job satisfaction.

Accuracy of Supervisors' Perceived
36b Satisfaction

 

 

Seventy-five supervisor-perceived job satisfaction
ratings were returned for Ss who had also completed that
portion of the questionnaire, although many more attendants
(a total of 150) and supervisors (a total of 89) had filled
out this scale. As can be seen in Table 5, there is almost
no relationship observed between how the attendants responded
to the job satisfaction measures and the supervisors' per-
ceived satisfaction responses.

However, it can also be noted that the attendants
responses to the "pay" subscale may be related to how the
supervisor perceives the attendant's job satisfaction, since
significant correlations were achieved for three of the
supervisor perceived satisfaction scales with the attendant
pay scale. Total reported satisfaction and total perceived
satisfaction correlated only .20, accounting for only four

per cent of the variance in this matrix.

30

Table 5. Correlations between attendant satisfaction scores
and supervisor satisfaction scores.

 

 

 

 

SATIS- ATTENDANT
FACTION SUPER- PRO-
SCORE WORK VISOR PEOPLE PAY MOTION TOTAL
WORK .15 .12 .08 .09 .18 .18
g SUPERVISOR .13 .11 .13 .02 .06 .14
:2 PEOPLE .17 .06 .12 .35** .01 .18
>
g PAY -.11 .05 .01 .31**-.01 .06
g PROMOTION .16 -.08 .08 .05 .13 .09
m TOTAL .15 .07 .11 .25* .13 .20
* p < .05
** p < 01

What these results indicate, then, is that at least
these supervisors could not predict how satisfied a given
attendant is with her (his) job. It appears that what the
supervisors are using to estimate job satisfaction in general
is the attendant's satisfaction with her pay, which the
supervisors could estimate fairly accurately. They could
not, however, estimate at all how satisfied attendants were
with their work, the people with whom they worked, promo-

tional policy, and, particularly, supervision they receive.

DISCUSSION

The first finding that needs emphasis is that the
attendant nurses, given the opportunity, were very articu-
late about the kinds of training programs that they felt
should be implemented. The vast majority (85%) felt that
formal job training should not only include classroom exper-
ience prior to the job, but on the job training as well, be-
fore being expected to take the full responsibilities asso-
ciated with the job. They suggested training programs rang—
ing in duration from a few days to the entire duration of
the job, with an average suggested duration of 18.4 weeks,
or at least the first four months of the job.

The ratings from the training suggestions showed
that in general the attendants are quite practical (average
practicality score was 4.23 on a six point scale) and also
fairly original (average score 3.09 on a six point scale),
since most attendants included suggestions different from
their own training. Completeness ratings were also near the
midpoint of the scale (3.4). Examples are cited in Appen-
dix C. Of these ratings, only the originality rating in
this study can be considered at all valid. This rating was

based on responses attendants gave when asked to describe

31

32

training they had received, while practicality and complete-
ness ratings were made relative to the range of suggestions
offered by all attendants. The higher inter-rater reliabil-
ity found for the originality ratings reflects this rela-
tionship. Validating the completeness and particularly the
practicality measure would involve the participating of the
institutions' staffs, which were not available for this
study. If the measures are to be used again by this inves-
tigator or by others, validating procedures should be car-
ried out.

Even keeping these limitations in mind, the cluster
analysis revealed the similarity in these ratings and their
strong positive association with each other. Contrary to
expectation, attendants that rated highly on originality
were not necessarily rated lower on practicality or complete-
ness. In fact, the opposite was true; those that were rated
highly on one tended to be rated highly on the other two.

It was also found that, contrary to prediction, scor-
ing highly on any of the above criteria appeared to have no
relationship with tenure. While it is risky to interpret
negative results, the lack of any differences between low,
medium and high tenure attendants may be reflecting atten-
dant abilities to answer questionnaire-type questions. Cer-
tain aspects of the job common to all attendants might also
account for the lack of differences. Although the responses

are not scored individually on the job satisfaction index

33

(JDI) that was used, perhaps a technique such as a cluster
or factor analysis on these individual responses might re-
veal some of these common factors.

On the basis of the above conclusions, it seems log-
ical that attendants can do at least as well determining
training procedure for attendant nurses as is done by pro-
fessionals. Since a 9 point on the scale of originality was
determined by the response "same training as I received,"
even a midpoint response indicates some proficiency in out-
lining a training program for attendants. It is suggested,
then, that attendants at least be consulted in future job
training programs being planned at these two institutions.

High tenure was not related either to more ruralism
or large family size, contrary to what Cleland g£_gl. (1967)
found in a Texas institution. In fact, the variables which
exhibited significant differences between schools were the
ones that were negatively related to ruralism. These differ-
ences in results between the two studies may be due to sev-
eral factors. Cleland g£_al. defined ruralism in terms of
each attendant's background. In this study, ruralism was de-
fined in terms of the training school's setting, defined in
terms of population density of the town the Training School
is in and distance from a large metropolitan area. These
different definitions may account for some of the differences
in findings, since many attendants at both institutions live

as many as 30 miles away from the institution. Secondly,

34

the disparate findings may be due to regional differences in
the country. Whereas Texas is a large state with relatively
less population density than Michigan, Michigan may not have
the same extremes in ruralism in attendants that the Texas
study observed. It may also be due to institutionally spe-
cific variables as well.

Differences observed in tenure between the two Train-
ing Schools in this sample might well be interpreted as sup—
port for the Butterfield §£_al. (1966) hypothesis that ten-
ure reflects the economic climate of the surrounding area
more than any other factor. Unemployment has been generally
high in this state, particularly around the large urban cen-
ters of the state, and the high tenure of the least rural
institution may more closely reflect the uneasiness about
re—employment. This is emphasized by the lack of relation-

ship between tenure and job satisfaction.

Attitude

In general, the Efron and Efron Attitude about Men—
tal Retardation items did not cluster as in the original fac-
tors. One cluster did appear to be made up of very similar
segregation via institutionalization items and two personal
exclusion items. The original segregation via institution-
alization factor was the most reliable factor from the orig-
inal attitude scale. Not all ten of the original factored

items used in this study, however, did cluster together.

35

They may be an unfair test of the attitude scale's relia-
bility, since it was not clustered separately, but only as
one section of very different kinds of variables. Due to
the nature of the cluster analysis, specifically that it
clusters variables until 95 percent of the variance is ac-
counted for in the correlation matrix of the V-analysis,
most of the variance had been accounted for by other types
of variables (e.g., training suggestions, job satisfaction)
that had high communalities before the attitude items (with
the exception of the segregation-exclusion items and one
hopelessness item) had a chance to cluster.

This does mean, however, that in this study, those
attitude variables that did not cluster (authoritarianism,
cultural deprivation, noncondemnatory etiology, hopeless-
ness) did not account for much of the variance. Since this
was also true of most of the personal history variables
(e.g., birth order, religion, number Of children, organiza-
tions belonged to) it may be concluded that for the focal
interest areas of this study--training suggestions and ten-
ure and associated job satisfaction-~these attitudinal and
personal variables account for little of the total variance

in other variables.

O-Analysis

From the O-analysis (Figures 4 and 5), it is possi-

ble to interpret the individual Ss' profiles emerging (each

36

including at least five percent of the sample). It must be
assumed that the clusters have normal theoretical distribu-
tions, and that scores within one standard deviation of the
standardized mean (50) are expected values. It is then pos-
sible to discuss these individual profiles on the basis of
which cluster is characteristically beyond one standard de-
viation from the mean in either direction.

The following are descriptions and interpretations
of the O—types illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. Fifty per-
cent of the attendants in the total sample are included in

these seven O—types.

Type 1: Low Training Suggestion Ratings

Ten individuals, roughly five percent of the sample,
were found to rate low on the training suggestion cluster,
but were within one standard deviation (medium) on all other
clusters. The moderately low index of homogeniety (IH) in-
dicates that there was some variability between individuals
in this O-type. While these people appear to be rated low
on the training suggestions, giving suggestions closely re-
sembling their own training, this does not seem to relate
to their satisfaction, tenure or attitude about segregating
retarded children from society. It is worthwhile to note
that this is the only profile including a low score on the

suggestion ratings.

37

Type 2: Low Satisfaction

While these 12 individuals (seven percent) are low
on satisfaction, they have medium scores on the other three
clusters. They are probably dissatisfied with their jobs,
have moderately rated training suggestions, and are only
moderately in favor of segregating retardates via institu-
tionalization. Their job satisfaction does not seem to mo-
tivate them to quit because they have, in general, moderate
tenure. On the other hand, as can be seen both in the major
and minor (Appendix F) O-types, there are no profiles in-
cluding both low satisfaction scores and high tenure, indi-
cating that these may be some of the most likely individuals
either to quit within the next few years, or change their

minds about job satisfaction.

Type 3: Low Segregation Scores

One of the largest of the seven major 0-types, this
one includes 15 persons (about 9 percent of the sample).
These individuals indicated that they are opposed to the
segregation of retardates by institutionalizing them. In
general, they are of medium tenure, were rated only moder-
ately for any of the training suggestions, and report them-
selves not dissatisfied with their work. While they basi-
cally oppose the segregation of retarded people from society,
there must be enough rewarding aspects of the job to keep

their satisfaction in the medium range; they might be labeled

38

the "missionaries" of the institution who work for the res—
idents, although disagreeing in principle with segregation.
If one wanted to introduce new techniques of training re-

tardates to be self—sufficient and return to the community,
these individuals might be the ones to engage as potential

change agents (Fairweather, 1968) within the institution.

Types 4 and 5: Medium Scores

These individuals collectively are those attendants
of medium suggestion ratings, medium job satisfaction, me-
dium support of institutionalization, and low and medium
tenure. They are described together because the low tenure
group will likely join the second in profile as soon as they
have worked long enough to obtain medium tenure ratings.
Together, they comprise about 12 percent of the sampled at-
tendants, and might be titled "the middle workers." Middle
workers are competent, moderately satisfied with their jobs,
and don't feel particularly one way or the other about in-
stitutionalizing or not institutionalizing retarded people,

even though they work in an institution for the retarded.

Type 6: High Segregation

In about equal number to the low segregation pro-
file (13 people) are a group feeling strongly that retarded

individuals should be institutionalized. They are moderately

39

satisfied with their jobs and were able to articulate train-
ing suggestions as well as most other attendants. They are

also of medium tenure.

Type 7: High Job Satisfaction

The largest single type (10 percent of the sample)
is made up of people who are highly satisfied with their
jobs, but are not differentiatable on the other three clus-
ters. This O-type had an extremely high IH, indicating a
fairly homogeneous group. These individuals were moderately
articulate about training suggestions, and would be those
people that might be predicted to continue working at the
institution from the standpoint of the institution's staff.
However, based on the findings of this study--specifically
that job satisfaction and tenure are not significantly re-
lated—-one cannot make this prediction.

It must be noted that a highly rated training sug-
gestion group is missing from the major O-types. Twenty-
six such individuals exist in the minor O-types, but varied
too widely in their profiles on the other three clusters to
constitute a single profile. It is these individuals that
the institutions might most logically look to for assistance
in planning new training programs. They rated highly on
cluster 1, indicating an ability to articulate original,
practical and complete job training programs for attendant

nurses .

40

There is much work to still be done in identifying
variables related to tenure of attendants. In general,
this study would support the hypothesis that institution-
ally specific variables such as the economic climate of the
region might be the most fruitful experimental emphases.

Attendants seem able to participate in planning
training programs on the basis of the originality, practi-
cality and completeness of the suggestions they gave in re-
sponse to this questionnaire. They would seem to be, in
general, at least as competent as those now devising the
training programs and should definitely be allowed to have
input into the training decisions of the institution. An
additional study is needed to test out the attendant's abil-
ity to independently plan and implement training programs

for attendant nurses.

SUMMARY

The present study was designed to see if attendants
in two mental retardation training schools could plan job
training programs for other attendants, and whether attitude,
personal history and job satisfaction variables were related
to planning ability. Tenure was also investigated, specif-
ically to see which, if any, of the above mentioned variables
accounted for variance in tenure. Tenure was also investi-
gated in terms of its relationship to the setting of the two
training schools, specifically, most rural and least rural
location. In addition, immediate supervisors of the 172 vol-
unteer attendant nurse Ss were surveyed with the same job
satisfaction measure (Cornell Job Descriptive Index) to ob-
serve the relationship between actual attendant job satisfac-
tion and job satisfaction of the attendant as perceived by
the supervisor.

The data was analyzed by means of a Cluster Analysis
(Tryon and Bailey, 1970), and four clusters of variables
were obtained, accounting for 65 percent of the variance in
the correlation matrix. These four clusters pertained to
(a) attendants' training suggestions rated for number of re-

sponses, originality, practicality and completeness; (b) job

41

42

satisfaction; (c) attitude about segregation of retarded in-
dividuals via institutionalization; and (d) tenure related
variables.

The training suggestion ratings were found not to
be related to tenure, and was similarly not related to either
of the other two clusters. Job satisfaction was found to be
negatively related to attitude in favor of segregating re-
tardates, and not related to tenure. A positive relation-
ship was also found between segregation attitude and tenure.

Tenure was not found to be related to more ruralism;
the least rural setting training school had the highest aver-
age tenure. This was discussed, and interpreted in favor of
the Butterfield, Barnett and Bensberg (1966) hypothesis that
tenure is related to regional factors such as economic cli-
mate of the county and institution is located in more than
attendant attitude or personal history variables.

An Object Cluster Analysis (O-type analysis, Tryon
and Bailey, 1970) was also performed, yielding 20 attendant
profiles on the four cluster scores for each attendant.
Seven of these profiles (O-types) contained at least five
percent of the sample in each profile, and collectively con-
tained 50 percent of the sample. These were labeled: low
training suggestion ratings; low satisfaction; low segrega-
tion scores; low tenure; medium scores; high segregation
scores; and high job satisfaction. The nature of these pro-

files was discussed.

43

Supervisor perceived job satisfaction was found to
have little relationship to attendant reported job satisfac-
tion. Significant correlations between the two sets of job
satisfaction data were between supervisors ratings on the
"pay" and "people" subscales of the JDI and attendant "pay"
satisfaction scores, which was interpreted as the supervisor
interpreting pay satisfaction as total job satisfaction on
the other subscales as well.

It was concluded that attendants could specify what
elements should go into a training program for other atten-
dants, and recommended that they be included in planning

new training programs by the two Training Schools' staffs.

LI ST OF REFERENCES

LIST OF REFERENCES

Bensberg, G. J. and Barnett, C. D. Attendant training 12
Southern residential facilities for the mentally
retarded. Atlanta: Southern Regional Education

Board, 1966.

Butterfield, E. C., Barnett, C. D., and Bensberg, G. J.
"Some objective characteristics of institutions for
the mentally retarded: Implications for attendant
turnover rate." American Journal 9£_Mental Defi-

ciency, ZS, 786-794.

 

Cleland, C., Seitz, S., and Patton, W. F. Birth order and
ruralism as potential determinants of attendant

tenure. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 72,
428—433. —— ——

 

Dinnage, R., and Pringle, M. L. K. Residential child care:
Facts and falacies. New York: Humanities Press,

1966, pp. 18-20, 189-224.

 

Gardner, J. M. Inservice training in institutions for the
mentally retarded. Mental Retardation Abstracts,
1967, 4(4), 563-567.

Gardner, J. M. and Giampa, F. L. The attendant behavior
checklist: Measuring on-the-ward behavior of in-
stitutional attendants. American Journal 9£_Mental
Deficiency, 1971, ZS(5), 617-622

 

Efron, R. E., and Efron, H. Y. Measurements of attitudes
toward the retarded and an application with educa-
tors. American Journal g£_Mental Deficiency, 1967,
11(1), 100-106.

 

 

Fairweather, G. W. Methods for Experimental Social Innova-
tion. New York: John Wiléy and Sons, 1967, 86.

Monsky, S. F. Staffing of local authority residential homes
for children. The Social Surve , duplicated, 1963.
Reported in Dinnage, R., and Pringle, M. L. K. Res-
idential Child Care: Facts and Falacies.

 

44

45

Schmidmayer, B., and Weld, R. G. Attitudes of institution
employees toward resident-oriented activities of
aides. American Journal 9£_Mental Deficiency, 1971,

19(1) 9 1'5-

 

Smith, P. C. The development of a method of measuring job
satisfaction: The Cornell studies. Reprinted in
Fleishman, E. A. Studies in Personnel and Indus-
trial Ps cholo . HomewoodT'IIl.: Dorsey Press,
Inc., I967, 343-350.

 

Tryon, R. C., and Bailey, D. E. Cluster Analysis. New
York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., .

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Attendant Nurse Survey

 

APPENDIX A

Attendant Nurse Survey

 

Part I: General Information

1.

2.

Age

 

Sex: M F (Circle one)

Last year of school completed: (Circle one)
a. High school year (fill in year)

b. High school diploma or equivalent

c. One year college

d. Two years college

e. Three years college

f. Bachelors degree

g. Graduate study (specify amount)

. Marital status: a. single b. married (Circle one)
. Number of children:

. Number of brothers and sisters:

If you do have brothers and sisters, were you: (Circle one)
a. First born

b. Second born

c. Third born

d. Other (specify)

. Religion: (optional)

. Protestant

. Catholic

. Jewish

. Other (specify)
. None

 

(DO-00"”

. List the organizations and voluntary associations you be-

long to (for instance, Church Women's Auxiliary, Grange)

 

 

46

10.

ll.

12.

47

Number of years you have worked at the State Home and
Training School: .

Is this the first institution for the mentally retarded
you have worked for?

a. Yes

b. No

If no to question 11, how many years did you work in
any institution for the mentally retarded prior to com-
ing to work at this State Home and Training School?

 

In which states?

 

Part II: Suggestions for an Attendant Nurse Job Training

1.

Program.

Describe the job training you did receive (if none,
write "none")

 

 

If you did receive job training, was it useful?
a. Yes D. No

If you had no training, do you think it would have been
useful? a. Yes b. No .

 

If you were planning a job training program for atten-
dant nurses, would it be:

a. Prior to beginning the job

b. On the job training only

c. A combination of the two.

If you were planning a training program for attendant
nurses, how long would it take each attendant nurse to
complete the program?

 

List descriptions of the training program you would plan
for attendant nurses in the space below (for example,
"prior to beginning the job, attendant nurses would be
given four lectures on causes of mental retardation;"

or "movies on ward procedure"):

 

 

 

 

If you need additional space, use thefiback of the page.

Part III:

48

Questions about Mental Retardation

For each of the following questions, please circle the num«
ber to the left of the question which most closely matches
your feeling about that question. Please use the following

categories:

Example:

2 3 4 5 6

strongly disagree
. disagree

somewhat disagree
somewhat agree

. agree

strongly agree

GUI-DINNH

In winter, the weather is generally warmer than
in summer.

It is wrong to laugh at a mental retardate in
every case.

The majority of the mentally retarded are the
children of the more disadvantaged classes of
our society.

Retardation is one of the two largest causes
of sex crimes.

It would be kinder to establish separate com-
munities for retardates where they would not
feel so out of place.

Any perfectly normal parents may have a re-
tarded child.

Most of our social problems would be solved if
we could somehow get rid of the immoral,
crooked and feebleminded people.

Once someone is retarded, little can be done
for him.

Minimally retarded persons are more nearly com-
parable to the most profoundly retarded than
they are to the nonretarded.

To be perfectly honest, this would be a safer
place if there were no mentally retarded.

A mental retardate can live just as happy a
life as a normal person.

49

As sad as it is to admit it, there really is
little hope for the mentally retarded.

If people obeyed God, there would be less men-
tal deficiency.

You can generally identify a retardate by his
looks.

Except for the fact that they are not so smart,
mental retardates are the same as other chil-
dren.

There are many causes of retardation, but sin-
ning parents is not one of them.

A substantial cause of mental retardation is
cultural and educational impoverishment.

I'd rather see a child born dead than mentally
retarded.

Decent parents are just as likely to have a
mentally retarded child as any other parents.

It is unfair to the normal children to have re-
tardates in the same classroom.

Programs, such as Headstart, that broadens the
child's experience at an early age prevent
cases of mental retardation.

Most people don't realize how much our lives
are controlled by plots hatched in secret
places.

Retardates are responsible for more crimes than
their proportion in the population.

In many cases, illiteracy and mental retarda-
tion are indistinguishable.

I would trust a mentally retarded person as a
baby-sitter.

Retardates should be prevented from having
children by a painless operation.

I could see myself having a mental retardate
as a true friend.

50

There is a sharp dividing line between "normal"
and "mentally retarded."

Mental retardation often leads to mental ill-
ness.

I would do everything in my power to prevent
my daughter from marrying a mental retardate.

Having a retardate is one way God punishes
people.

The wild sex life of the Old Greeks and Romans
was tame compared to some of the goings on in
this country, even in places where people might
least suspect.

Mentally retarded children should live in spe-
cial institutions where they can be supervised
and protected.

Science has its place, but there are many im-
portant things that can never possibly be under-
stood by the human mind.

What this country needs most, more than laws
and political programs, is a few courageous,
tireless devoted leaders in whom the people
can put their faith.

Retardates should live among themselves and
everything should be done to help them live
happy lives.

Separate schools for the retarded would provide
them with the special programs they need.

A mental retardate can live just as useful as
a normal person.

Most mental retardates are better off in an in-
stitution with others of their kind.

Obedience and respect for authority are the most
important virtues children should learn.

51

Part IV: Job Description

Please put a "Y" beside an item if the item describes that
aspect of your job; "N" if the item does not describe your
job; or "?" if you cannot decide.

 

 

 

Work Supervision People
Y Fascinating _Y_Asks my advice _Y_Stimulating
N Routine _N_Hard to please _N_Boring
_Y_Satisfying _N_Impolite ___Slow
_E_Boring _Y_Praises good work _Y_Ambitious
_I_Cood _Y_Tactful N Stupid
_Y_Creative _Y_Influential _;_Responsible
_Y_Respected _X_Up—to-date _Y_Fast
_N_Hot _N_Doesn't SUpervise _Y_Intelligent
_Y_Pleasant enough _N_Easy to make
_Y_Useful _N_Quick-tempered enemies
_N_Tiresome _Y_Tells me where _N_Talk too much
_Y_Healthful I stand _Y_Smart
_Y_Challenging _N;Annoying _N_Lazy
_N_On your feet _N_Stubborn _N_Unpleasant
_N_Frustrating _Y_Knows job well _N_No privacy
_N_Simple _N_Bad _Y_Active
_N_Endless _Y_lntelligent ___Narrow
_Y_Gives a sense of _Y_Leaves me on my interests
accomplishment own _Y_Loyal
_Y_Around when needed ___Hard to meet
JLLazy
Bay Promotions
_X_Income adequate for normal _X_Good opportunity for
expenses advancement
N Barely live on income _§_Opportunity somewhat
_N-Bad limited
—Y—Income provides luxuries Y Promotion on ability
—N_Insecure ‘NTDead—end job
:E:Less than I deserve :XZGood chance for promo-
Y Highly paid tion
:EZUnderpaid N Unfair promotion policy

—N_Infrequent promotions
:Z:Regular promotions

Y Fairly good chance for
_——promotion

APPENDIX B

Training Sugge§tion Rating Procedure

 

APPENDIX B

Training Suggestion RatingProcedure

Two psychology graduate students (including this in-
vestigator) underwent three training sessions for rating
procedure, during which the training the attendants had had
was outlined for them from the attendants' own descriptions
of their training. The range of suggestions made by the
172 attendant Ss was also defined, yielding three rating
scales: originality or suggestion(s); practicality of sug-
gestion(s); and completeness of the training program sug-
gested. Each of the ratings was assigned on a scale of 0
to 6 points.

At the end of the three training sessions, the raters
were checked for inter-rater reliability on 30 randomly se-
lected questionnaires, and obtained inter-rater reliabil-
ities of r= .93 for originality ratings; practicality re-
liability was .85; and reliability for the completeness rat-
ings was .89, with an overall inter-rater reliability of
r= .89.

The 142 remaining questionnaires were randomly di-
vided into two equal piles, and each rater took one half of
the questionnaires to rate. Rating was completed within a

week of the final training session.

52

APPENDIX C

Sample Rated Responses

 

for Attendants' Training Suggestions

 

Rating

APPENDIX C

Sample Rated Responses

 

for Attendants' Training Suggestions

Sample Response

 

ORIGINALITY

 

0
1

Same training I received.
Putting up medications, bandaging wounds.

Lectures and movies, plus tour of buildings be-
fore duty. On the job training under trained
personnel for a certain length of time before
being put on active duty alone.

Prior to beginning the job one week of relating
the new employee to retardation, its causes and
cures (what cures that are available). One week
on the job training in the building where em-
ployee is to work. One week back in classroom
atmosphere to discuss prior two weeks. Movie on
procedures are useless unless each building su-
pervisor has their own.

Prior to beginning the job, attendant nurses
would be given a chance to see the type of men-
tal retardation films in which will give them
the type of children they will be expected to
work with. Also have them understand what is
expected of them once they start the job. While
on the job let them learn about each child-~their
likes and dislikes and care for as few as possi-
ble. While doing this it is possible to under-
stand a child's reasons for being mentally re-
tarded. This also gives closer contact with
mental retarded.

53

Rating

54

Sample Responses

 

ORIGINALITY

 

5

We have a very good training program here. One
phase I might suggest would be something on un-
derstanding and dealing with the parents of the
retardates.

Basics in nursing care, lectures and talks on
retardation. Go into the rights of the retardate
in detail. Movies are a great help.

 

PRACTICALITY

 

0

Fly around the country to see how other atten-
dants are trained.

Attendants each be given a ward to direct as on
the job training.

On the job training is the most useful. Movies
if the right kind would be helpful. Most people
learn more by doing.

How to keep the retardate happy; how to put up
and give medications; how to teach the retardate
personal hygiene.

Lecture movie prior to going into building. 2.
going into area where you will be working to ob-
serve is most beneficial--too much is thrown at
you and only confuses most people--this is most
frightening. 3. Always have another friendly
attendant with you to explain certain behaviors.

Lectures on understanding the mentally retarded
(before starting employment)--movies on training
for eating habits and pottying--also a brief
course on medications and how to set them up.
Also acquainting the help with the grounds and
procedures to date.

One week basic orientation at the beginning of
the job explaining procedures of giving medica-
tions. Movies showing different types of situa-
tions--i.e., seizure patient, heart patient, etc.
After approximately six months I would like to
see another two week course given. I would be
in favor of a refresher course given every two
years to every employee...to bring him up to
date with new procedures and techniques.

Rating

55

Sample Response

 

COMPLETENESS

 

O
1

Movies

Prior training would be fine if they told things
the way they really are instead of filling you
of grand ideas then sending you to a building
where you learn all over again.

Movies and lectures. Work in the worst areas
first, then work up to easier areas. All new
attendants should have an idea of how bad it
can be.

Full 150 hour course already established plus
tours of programs already in progress to see
some of the results already accomplished--place-
ment, job training, etc. Also a close follow-
up of progress for at least one year.

1. Lectures and movies on mental retardation,
learn medication symbols and terms, etc. Give
more information on the kind of patients they
will be taking care of—-some of the movies and
lectures (given) have nothing to do with our
type of resident. Work with a one-to-one basis
for one week with a resident, etc.

Prior to beginning the job, the person would be
shown the areas he was to work in--and then with
up to date movies of the problems and duties he
or she would be dealing with! Of course, a de-
tailed course in medicine is very important--as
well as instruction of fire drills, use of fire
extinguishers, etc. Recommended books on the
mentally retarded as required reading would be
most essential.

Prior to the job: movies on headbanging, behav-
ioral programs with questions and answers. Prac-
tical demonstrations on putting up and giving
medication. On the job--actually putting up and
giving medication. How to care for and handle
disturbed children. Making out medication cards
and sign out sheets-~all aspects of daily work
and care of children.

APPENDIX D

Attendant Cover Letter

 

APPENDIX D

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY East Lansing, Michigan

 

Department of Psychology, Olds Hall

April 10, 1972

Dear Attendant Nurse:

This letter is a request for your cooperation in a
project initiated at Michigan State University, dealing with
attendant nurses' ideas for attendant nurse training pro-
grams, job satisfaction, and some general questions about
mental retardation. I would very much appreciate it if you
would fill the questionnaire out at home and return it in
the stamped, addressed envelope provided for you. In addi-
tion to the questions mentioned above, there is a section
asking for general information about you. Even if you choose
not to fill out the other sections, please fill out the gen-
eral information section and mail it back to me.

Please do not discuss your responses with other atten-
dant nurses until after you have mailed the questionnaire
back to me. After the information is analyzed, I will be
happy to send you a copy of the results; if you would like
a copy, fill out the attached card and put it in the envelope
with your questionnaire before mailing it. I will also prob-
ably be coming to the State Home and Training School to dis-
cuss the results with the staff during the summer.

No names will be recorded, so no one will know which is
your questionnaire. Thank you very much in advance for your
cooperation.

Sincerely,

Karen M. Lounsbury
Graduate Research Assistant

56

APPENDIX E

Supervisor Cover Letter

 

APPENDIX E

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY East Lansing, Michigan 48823

 

Department of Psychology'I' Olds Hall

Dear Supervisor:

This is a request for your cooperation in a project
initiated at Michigan State University, dealing with atten-
dant nurses' ideas for training programs, job description
and information about mental retardation. In addition to
this information, I would like to have supervisors fill out
the same job description questions as if the supervisor were
the attendant nurse. If there is more than one supervisor
in a cottage, you need not both fill out forms for the same
attendant nurse; rather, each take half of the forms.

The numbers on the forms correspond to the numbers on
the attendant nurse questionnaires. Before handing an
attendant nurse his/her questionnaire, please pencil in the
attendant nurse's name on a correspondingly numbered form
so that you will know who you are supposed to be filling the
job description form out for. Then, please fill out the
forms at home. Please erase the names as you complete the
form; I do not want names recorded, but will match the num-
bers. After you have completed these forms, please place
them in the stamped, addressed envelope and mail them back
to me.

Please do not discuss your responses with attendant
nurses or other supervisors until after you have mailed the
forms. After the information is analyzed, I will be happy
to send you a copy of the results; if you would like a copy,
fill out the attached card and put it in the envelope with
your forms before mailing it. I will also probably be com-
ing to the State Home and Training School to discuss the re-
sults with the staff during the summer.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Karen M. Lounsbury
Graduate Research Assistant

57

APPENDIX F

TypolOgical Classification of Subjects

 

Based on Object Cluster Analysis: Minor O-Types

 

APPENDIX E

Typological Classification of Subjects

Based on Object Cluster Analysis: Minor O-Types

 

Type Number of CLUSTER 1 CLUSTER 2 CLUSTER 3 CLUSTER 4 Factor
Subjects MSCS IH MSCS IH MSCS IH MSCS IH Scores
8 4 37.l6*.95 45.82 .93 57.61 .98 61.57*.96 .96
9 5 35.96*.76 52.10 .96 62.23*.91 48.74 .90 .88
10 5 37.l8*.91 55.19 .96 64.17*.97 66.91*.89 .93
ll 4 45.87 .86 23.51*.90 56.06 .97 40.04 .97 .92
12 7 49.15 .95 47.81 .96 46.09 .66 66.69*.98 .90
13 4 42.80 .96 43.16 .84 64.99*.98 66.73*.89 .92
14 4 60.86*.94 65.32*.98 26.93*.88 36.83*.98 .87
15 7 45.28 .91 60.04*.95 46.77 .97 62.16*.85 .92
16 3 63.07*.99 31.38*.94 65.96*.99 52.36 .82 .94
17 7 63.54*.97 54.84 .82 42.66 .89 38.79*.98 .91
18 6 63.30*.92 49.25 .91 54.35 .81 42.43 .99 .91
19 6 62.33*.88 47.50 .84 55.30 .93 63.82*.96 .90
20 4 69.97*.59 60.69*.96 48.58 .96 47.20 .99 .78

 

MSCS--denotes the mean value of standard composite scores on
a cluster for subjects in a type.

IH--denotes the index of homogeneity for the standard compos-
ite scores of subjects in a type.

*--indicates that the value is more than one standard devia-
tion away from the mean standard domposite score for the
total sample.

Factor Scores indicate the overall homogeneity across all
dimensions given for each type.

 

58