Adjustment to Physical Handicap and Illness: A Survey of the Social Psychology of Physique and Disability
Barker, Wright, and Gonick's 1946 monograph argues that physique and disability must be studied as social-psychological phenomena, not merely medical conditions. Its framework—'somatopsychology'—holds that an individual's physical characteristics influence behavior primarily through their social meanings: how others react to visible difference, how the person perceives those reactions, and how cultural criteria of normality shape self-evaluation. The survey organizes research on obesity, stature, crippling, tuberculosis, hearing impairment, and acute illness around this reciprocal relationship between physique and behavior, establishing the field's foundational claim that disability's psychological consequences are socially mediated.
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What is somatopsychology, and what does it reject?
Somatopsychology, the framework Barker, Wright, and Gonick introduce and develop in this survey, holds that the psychological consequences of physique and disability cannot be read directly off bodily states. It rejects a purely medical model in which disability's effects are treated as inherent to the impairment. Instead, the framework emphasizes the somatopsychological relation: physique influences behavior primarily as a social stimulus, through cultural criteria of normality, others' reactions, and the person's own self-evaluation against those standards . A Physical Therapy review described the approach as dealing with behavior manifestations resulting from the individual's reactions to variations of health and physical structure, both congenital and acquired .
What specific contribution did the book make to the study of physique and behavior?
The book's distinctive contribution was to organize a scattered literature into a systematic framework linking physique to behavior through social and psychological mediation. It examined both directions of the relation: physique influencing behavior and behavior influencing physique . The survey covered normal variations such as obesity and extremes in height alongside crippling, tuberculosis, hearing impairment, and acute illness. H. Meltzer's review in Psychological Bulletin praised it as 'extremely well done' and serving 'a very useful purpose' . A Journal of Consulting Psychology review highlighted its somatopsychological treatment of physique and behavior with special reference to theory, research, and practice .
How did the book address the experience of disabled veterans after World War II?
The 1946 publication coincided with the return of disabled veterans, and the book explicitly addressed their situation within its broader survey. An American Journal of Public Health review noted that the authors' 'insight in dealing with the psychosomatic approach to many problems of the handicapped should make this a valuable reference for the medical and allied professions' . The review singled out the book's treatment of 'the disabled veterans and other civilians who must accept their handicaps and adjust them to our society' as a central concern. A final chapter dealt with rehabilitation and employment of the handicapped, applying principles learned during the war years .
What was Beatrice A. Wright's role, and how did the collaboration shape the book?
Beatrice A. Wright was a co-author from the first edition and a central figure in the somatopsychological tradition. The first edition (1946) was authored by Barker, Wright, and Mollie R. Gonick . By the revised second edition (1953), Lee Meyerson had joined as a collaborator, expanding the team . Wright's subsequent career centered on the psychology of disability, and her later work—particularly Physical Disability: A Psychological Approach (1960)—developed the somatopsychological framework independently. The Barker-Wright collaboration thus seeded a research program that Wright carried forward for decades after the initial survey.
What are the bibliographic details of the original and revised editions?
The first edition was published in 1946 by the Social Science Research Council as Bulletin 55, running xi + 372 pages with diagrams, authored by Barker, Beatrice A. Wright, and Mollie R. Gonick . A revised second edition appeared in 1953, expanded to xvi + 440 pages, with Lee Meyerson added as a collaborator . The second edition includes an extensive bibliography on the somato-psychological significance of physique spanning pages 373–423 . Kraus Reprint Co. reissued the second edition in 1977 . The book is now in the public domain in the United States .
How did reviewers assess the book's accessibility for different professional audiences?
Reviews noted a tension between the book's value for specialists and its difficulty for general readers. JAMA observed that 'parts of this section are technical and use terms and schematic devices which will be difficult for those not conversant with advanced psychology' . At the same time, the American Journal of Public Health praised the authors' approach: 'The authors have applied their psychology to the extent that the book is written in such a manner as to have the reader easily identify himself and those about him. In no way do the authors spoon-feed the reader' . The book demanded 'a thoughtful approach' because of 'the vague nature of our social concepts and because of the presence of the human equation in the behavior of disabled people' .
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How does this book relate to Barker's later work on behavior settings?
Adjustment to Physical Handicap and Illness represents an earlier, rehabilitation-focused phase of Barker's career before his development of behavior settings theory in the 1950s and 1960s. The somatopsychological framework in this volume emphasizes the person's relationship to social and physical environments—how cultural criteria and others' reactions shape adjustment. This concern with the environmental context of behavior prefigures Barker's later ecological psychology, where behavior settings became the unit of analysis. The 1946 survey thus marks a transition point: Barker applying a social-psychological lens to disability before turning to the environmental psychology for which he became best known.
What did the book argue about the relationship between behavior and physique?
The book detailed a reciprocal relation. Physique influences behavior by serving as a stimulus to the self and others—a person viewing evidence of illness or aging in the mirror may react by consulting a doctor, dyeing hair, or having 'a last fling' . Physique also carries social significance, as cultural criteria of age, sex, race, stature, beauty, and normality determine acceptance or rejection. Conversely, behavior influences physique: muscle tonus, posture, glandular activity, and metabolic state vary with emotional states, and long-term behavior patterns shape growth and function . The book cited the differing stature of American-born Japanese and native Japanese as evidence that behavior patterns within a culture affect physical development.
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