Review of Vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for severely disabled people.

Reviews the book, Vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for severely disabled people by Robert A. Lassiter, Martha Hughes Lassiter, Richard E. Hardy, J. William Underwood, and John G. Cull (1983). This book is composed of 31 short chapters, apparently divided into four separate sections. In just over 400 pages, vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for severely disabled people are examined. The title of this book leads the reader to assume that vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living will be examined as three equally important but separate and distinct topics. In fact, what is presented is a process, moving from vocational evaluation to work adjustment and finally to independent living. While there is adequate connection between vocational evaluation and work adjustment, and between work adjustment and independent living, there is none between vocational evaluation and independent living. On the whole, this book provides an adequate examination of vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for the severely disabled. It suffers, however, from those problems that plague so many edited works—lack of continuity, consistency, and central focus. An introductory chapter longer than 2? pages and a concluding chapter by the editors would have gone a long way to provide those aspects that are lacking. While clearly not a text for classroom use, this book will more appropriately be used to examine the "common sense goals that all three areas now possess." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)