ACQUAINTANCE RATINGS AS CRITERIA OF ADJUSTMENT

In four different samples of university students from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and The United States (total n = 645), criteria of psychological adjustment based on 2 friends' judgments of 15 specific behaviour tendencies attained levels of interrater agreement (averaging r = .50) at least as high as those previously obtained for criterion ratings on a wide range of attitudes, motives, and behaviour dispositions. Composite criterion ratings correlated with self‐reported adjustment at levels (averaging r = .32) comparable to correlations previously obtained between self‐report and acquaintances' ratings of other behaviour dispositions. Behaviour items which correlated highest with the total rated adjustment score were those judged by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to be most diagnostic of personal adjustment. 1979 Australian Psychological Society