The social pathology in the field of education is educational pathology. In this study concerning educational pathology, I have focused on the educational action which has a disfunctional influence in spite of the good intention of those concerned to bring about better results through educational efforts.
This study aims at clarifying (1) what kind of influence pathological experiences have on ego-identity achievement, which is an important factor in the developmental task of adolescence, and (2) what kind of significance they have in juvenile crime and delinquency, by comparing groups of ordinary students with groups of delinquent juveniles.
The procedures I have followed and the results I have deduced from them are as follows:
(1) I devised a valid and reliable scale to measure the pathological experiences.
(2)I compared EPS (educational pathology scores) with IDS (identity dimension scores) and then EPS with IS (identity scores) , with the result that in the identity dimension scale the higher scorers tend to approach identity diffusion, while the lower scorers tend to approach identity achievement. As is genrally said development is also an important factor in promorting identity achievement. I could prove it in my study.
(3) Delinquents in juvenile classification homes form a minority in the present educational system. The questionnaire items for ordinary students as the subject are not fit for the measurement of delinquents’ pathological experiences. Therefore, we should make the items having other contents, which will be fit for delinquents as our subject.
(4) Negative identity is generally thought to be a clinical figure of identity diffusion. But as a result of the comparison between the student groups and the delinquent groups, identity dimension of delinquents and their identity status were found near the extremity of identity achievement. I think that most delinquents in juvenile classification homes are of Fukushima’s negative identity type II (antisocial type) , so we should work out a questionnaire of items appropriate to the measurement of juvenile delinquents of negative identity type II.
