control, had better emotional adjustment because of
the belief that they had the resources and abilities to
change their environment. The results of this study are
somewhat discredited by the fact that social workers
and nurses rated individuals' emotional adjustment. A
common belief at this time was that rehabilitation
involved universal stages. This belief held signi®cant
allure for professionals as it contributed to the
development of treatment plans based on anticipated
reactions. As such, sta may have been subject to a
con®rmational bias and were hypervigilent to informa-
tion supporting their erroneous beliefs. A further
limitation of this study is the limited nature of the
variables studied. While the quest for meaning appears
to be almost universal following trauma this search
may not be the primary predictor of emotional
adjustment. Self blame appeared to predict adjustment
but this relationship may have disappeared if other
variables such as coping strategies, social support, and
general appraisals of threat or challenge were included.