The Vineland Social Maturity Scale.

Abstract

|@IBJ5!12lByiiME!JaJ@]BT he Vineland Social Maturity Scale is a measure of social development widely used with children and adults. In the words of Doll, its author, it "provides a definite outline of detailed performances in respect to which children show a progressive capacity for looking after themselves and for participating in those activities which lead toward ultimate independence as adults." (7, p. 1.) It thus taps an area of development important in many diagnostic problems-actual functioning level rather than estimated potential. Habitual performance is evaluated, not predicted capacity. Bradway, one of Doll's early co-workers, describes the scale as emphasizing different qualities at different age levels. She states: "The Vineland Social Maturity Scale measures social development in terms of personal independence and responsibility. In infancy and early childhood social maturity is reflected in self-help, at adolescence in self-direction and in adult life as assumption of responsibility for others." (3, p. 326.) The usefulness of such a scale, which objectifies impressions of growth and development generally observed by the clinician who works with the problems of children, is self-evident. Instead of depending alone upon clinical impression and past experience for judging the significance of certain types of behavior, the clinician has at his command a standardized diagnostic tool. Because it is standardized, because norms have been developed, and because he can share in the experiences of others who have used it, the clinician is in 313