Causal orientation and personal adjustment of hospitalized veterans.

Continues a line of theory and research which sees human behavior as basically teleological. Groups of hospitalized male alcoholics, psychotics, and normals were administered the Causal Construct Scale, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale. It was predicted that extent of pathology across experimental groups as well as general tendencies to abnormality would follow telic considerations. Intentional causal orientation was positively related and subtance causal orientation was negatively related to mental health. The impetus and pattern causal constructs failed to be predictive of personal adjustment.