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I would describe a bad home as one having some of the following characteristics.
Low family income resulting in insufficient food, clothing, footwear and material
needs; the house generally untidy, dirty or squalid; restricted living space
with gross overcrowding due to a large family or the presence of relatives,
lodgers or another family. It might be a broken home with one parent dead,
or parents divorced, separated, or abandoned, deserted or imprisoned; an
unmarried mother; or a parent suffering from a long physical or mental illness,
especially in hospital. There may be a bad marital relationship with frequent
and severe quarrelling; or drunkenness; and one or both parents not carrying
their fair share of responsibility. There may be a poor attitude of one or both
parents to the child from lack of interest, no time for the child, no discipline,
too much severity, harshness, neglect, cruelty, frequent corporal punishment;
or mental torment by derogatory and insulting expressions to the child, a hostile
attitude, rejection, absence of love and security, jealousy; or alternatively,
over-indulgence, pampering, inconsistent treatment as from violent oscillations
of love and hate. The child may be subject to bad influence in addition to these
as with bad companions, unhappy relationships with brothers and sisters, a
poor relationship with other adults or a teacher; long absences from home or
school; changes of school; or the child's inability to obtain help with some
problem which he believes important.
As our investigation proceeded it became clear that in order to determine
the relative importance of these deleterious influences on the health, welfare
and education of children, we must have a much finer classification of homes and
some sort of a measure. Now this is a matter of great difficulty. The list of
untoward influences shows that many are due to the goodness or otherwise of
the character and personality of the parents. We can observe such things as
overcrowding and poor sanitary environment, but it is not so easy to assess
personality. Nevertheless, most of us, every day of our lives, are making
observations on our friends and acquaintances and in doing so we mentally
classify them however roughly it may be. For research purposes we must be
much more accurate which leads me now to consider the assessment of
personality.
Assessing Personality.
From time immemorial men and women have made judgments about each
other using the noun, adjectives, and phrases of ordinary language to describe
the numerous factors of personality and character. Novelists, dramatists and
historians have described the personality of their characters; school teachers
have assessed the potentialities of their pupils.
An ordinary dictionary contains over 4,000 words whose meanings have
to do with the numerous facets of personality, such as abhor—(feel horror,
disgust, or hate for), ability—(power to perform or accomplish), abject—
(feeling wretched or miserable), abnegate—(deny oneself), above-board—
(honest, without tricks or concealment), abrupt—(short spoken, blunt). As
large numbers of these words are synonyms or near synonyms, it was possible
for Professor R. B. Cattell1 to reduce the 4,000 words to 171 groups which
describe the various aspects of human behaviour; these he calls trait elements,
as in the group—thoughtful, reflective, studious, meditative, or the opposite
group thoughtless, unreflective, hasty, incogitant. A trait is a collection of
reactions or responses bound together by some sort of unity which permits them
1 Cattell, R. B. (1946). Description and Measurement of Personality. McGraw Hill.
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