Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to test the goodness of fit hypothesis that suggests that adjustment is better when personal attributes are matched with environmental demands than when they are not, and that discrepancies in person-environment interactions provide a better means of predicting behavior and adjustment than personal or environmental variables alone. Junior and senior high school students and university students (in Study 1, N=387, 444, and 390 students, respectively; in Study 2, N=249, 308, and 392 students, respectively) were administered a subjective adjustment scale, a psychological needs scale, and an environmental demands scale corresponding to the psychological needs. To assess person-environment fit, discrepancy scores were calculated by subtracting the environmental demands scale scores from the psychological needs scale scores. In order to test the goodness of fit hypothesis, t tests were performed with degree of fit (high and low discrepancy) as the independent variable, and scores on the subjective adjustment scale as the dependent variable. The results showed that the groups with low discrepancy had greater subjective adjustment than the high discrepancy groups. Correlations among the psychological needs scale scores, the environmental demands scale scores, the discrepancy scores, and the scores on the scale of subjective adjustment revealed that the discrepancy scores were more related to subjective adjustment than to psychological needs and environmental demands alone.
