Exploratory investigation of the ability of attendants to plan their own training program.

A study was made of the ability of attendants in residential institutions for mentally retarded persons to plan an attendant-training program. A mailback survey of attendants in two midwestern institutions yielded 173 respondents. Planning-related responses were for originality, practicality, and completeness. Measures of job satisfaction, attitudes toward mental retardation, and demographic information were also obtained. It was hypothesized that the majority of attendants would be able to outline a training program for attendants and that planning ability would be related to the other variables measured. Tryon and Bailey's cluster analysis method was used, and four relatively independent clusters were found: rated training suggestions, job satisfaction, segregation-exclusion attitude, and tenure. An object-cluster analysis was performed on each attendant's cluster scores, identifying individual score profiles and isolating seven major 0-types. These were discussed in terms of predicted attendants' ability to plan a training program. It was concluded that some attendants are capable of making meaningful contributions to the training process but that this ability does not appear to be related to the other variables such as tenure or job satisfaction.