Introduction

This part briefly introduces the background, the purpose and significance of the study and the structure of the thesis. First of all, the social and current academic background are showed. Secondly, the purpose of the thesis and the significance for graduates, for their schools and for their companies come. Last but not least, the structure of the thesis is said.

Background of the Study

In recent years, a vast number of graduates from universities have applied their skills and knowledge to social construction. They, essentially, have always been regarded as the “bridge” between schools and society, the “detector” of school teaching effect, and the “living water” of the sustainable development of various companies. They, the future and hope of society to some degree, play a significant role in the healthy development of society and economy.

The number of graduates is growing as universities expand their enrollment plans, which leaded the situation that the number of graduate who manages to be employed has increased significantly, and some matters related with them had emerged as well.

“The employment situation of graduates is becoming more and more serious due to the impact of the international financial crisis” (Zhu Xiaodong220). When choosing a job, those graduates who come into contact with society firstly felt confused and easily produced a sense of maladjustment because of facing numerous jobs and choices. Along with time is fleeting, many graduates still were focused to face the dilemma of being incapable to obtain their own jobs as soon as they graduate because many good opportunities had been unwittingly missed even though schools and many sectors of society put their continuous efforts to solve this problem, which also directly leads the situation that most of studies preferred to concern about how to help graduates to adapt to the society when they are at schools.

Purpose and Significance of the Study

Purpose of the Study

The matters of employment of graduates is concerned by all walks of life due to “employment is the greatest people’s livelihood” and to the matters of graduates are closely related to the healthy development of society as well. Academia generally thought that graduates have experienced employment pressure under the current social environment. “There is a negative correlation between the social adaptability of graduates and the employment pressure. The worse the social adaptability is, the greater the employment pressure is” (Ji Liya185). The question how to improve the adaptability of graduates became the focus of solving this problem gradually with the word “adaptability” was introduced into the discussion of this problem.

This paper chose “the post adaptability of graduates” as the research content, and selected some employed graduates of Business English major from2011 to2016 at a university in Shaanxi province as the research participants.

Structure of the Study

This study consists of eight parts. The first part is introduction. This section will mainly describe the research background, the purpose and significance of the study and the structure of this study. The second part is literature review. This part will briefly explain the key terms as well as summarize and comment on the previous research at home and abroad. The third part is theoretical framework. This section will expound a theory used in the thesis. The fourth part is research methodology, which will make a statement on research questions, research instrument, research participants, research process and data analysis. The fifth part is results and discussion, which includes detailed data and analysis on questions concerned. The sixth part is conclusion. The summary of findings, implications and limitations and prospects for future study will be included. The seventh part will show the questionnaire used in this study. The eighth part is a list of works cited.

Literature Review

This part briefly introduces key terms, related theories and previous studies. Two main terms, graduates and post adaptability, are expounded first of all. A major related theory standing in the thesis is showed then. Finally, previous studies of post adaptability at home and abroad are introduced.

Key Terms

Some key terms appear in the thesis. Two term, “graduates” and “post adaptability”, are briefly introduced here.

Graduates

Graduates in this study refer to a group of full-time undergraduate graduates who graduated from four-year universities.

Post Adaptability

There, to some extent, was no accurate definition of the term “post adaptability” in academic circles at present, and the using boundary between the term and the terms “career adaptability” and “job adaptability” was relatively vague. This study holds that post adaptability refers to a relatively balanced and comfortable psychological state that individuals need after being at a new post.

Post adaptation is a dynamic process for one thing. The first thing to face is to change from a accustomed student status to other new identities as individual is at a post after graduating from school. At the same time, realizing his/her existing mismatch with the new environment is driving, individual will have adverse expectations of his/her own development trend and then negative emotions come. However, individual, fortunately, actively matches himself/herself with the setting, and these adverse effects will be finally eliminated or mitigated, which represents that adaptation occurs.

Previous Studies on Adaptability at Home and Abroad

The segment mainly concerns about two parts. Previous studies about adaptability at home and abroad are described there.

Studies on Adaptability at Home

The theory of adaptability, one of the theories in the field of psychology, had been widely used in more than20 fields, such as politics, economy and culture. In the planet, the study of the theory often began with the study of the origin of the term “adaptability”. By its source, academics generally believed that Darwin put forward a word “adaptation” in his work The Origin of Species in1859, and who argued that adaptation refers that “in order to survive, species must change themselves moderately, matching with the conditions of the real environment” (Chen mingzhong, Yan Jingxiong182). Pang Yu and her colleagues believed that the word “adaptation” came from the Latin word “Adaptatus” (33).

The Theory of Mentality Adapt Ability of College Students

Lu Chunli believed that “the term, mentality adapt ability of college students, is not an empty concept, but a highly operable one” (4). Therefore, in June2004, she put forward the theory of mentality adapt ability of college students in her study.

She argued that “it is one of the most important signs of college students’ mental health and is the concentrated embodiment of their comprehensive quality” (Lu Chunli4). At the same time, she summed up mentality adapt ability of college students into five factors: “academic adaptation, interpersonal relationship, social adaptation, collective adaptation and self-integration” (Lu Chunli4). These five definitely “reflected the composition of college students’ mentality adapt ability in structure, which can also better meet the requirements of factor analysis and can be explained” (Lu Chunli14).

Research Methodology

This chapter includes such five parts as research questions, research instrument, research participants, research process and data analysis. Research questions will describe three questions analyzed in the thesis. Research instrument will describe questions set in questionnaire. Research participants will introduce the situation of samples participating in the questionnaire. Research process will show the whole process of the survey. Data analysis will expound the process of addressing figures received.

Research Questions

Following three questions are analyzed based on figure from questionnaire launched through WenJuanXing system (www.wjx.cn):

1. Could graduates adapt to their initial posts?
2. If not, what are these maladaptations?
3. What could people do in order to alleviate these maladaptations?

Research Instrument

This study explored the post adaptability of graduates. In order to find out the degree of adapting to their initial posts to graduates, maladaptations they are suffering from and targeted suggestions, a survey questionnaire was developed to gather information learner needs in the thesis.

The questionnaire consists of19 questions with18 closed and1 open-ended question. In order to find suitable participants, the first question was set up as filtered one. The second and the third were set up to obtain the basic information of participants. The forth to the sixth were set up in order to find out some guessed factors which might have influence on the post adaptability of graduates. The seventh, fourteenth and fifteenth questions were set up in order to study the degree of adaptation of graduates to their posts and the later changes. The eighth was set up so as to find out what performances graduates have if they do not adapt their posts. For the purpose of analyzing how to alleviate the discomfort of graduates and putting forward effective suggestions for graduates, for colleges and for employers, the ninth to nineteenth questions were included in the questionnaire.

Results and Discussion

All topics cared in the thesis are analyzed below according to figures coming from questionnaire. The study finds that most of sample graduates can not adapt to their initial posts and are suffering from some maladaptations at their initial posts. Furthermore, some advice are put forward at the end of the chapter.

The Post Adaptability Degree of Graduates

Fig.1 finds that76.78% of the graduates in all the samples recovered felt a sense of maladjustment at their first posts, that22.75% of the graduates were relatively suitable to their posts, and that only0.47% of the graduates were fully adapted to their posts.

Therefore, it can be realized that almost all graduates, in the face of their initial positions, can not fully adapt to their posts based on above data.

Some Post Maladaptations

The data recovered from Fig.2 show that more than half of graduates had such unhealthy emotions as frustration and sometimes confusion, etc., and they also had problems as getting on with others. What’s more, more than40% of graduates believed that they could not fully apply what they had learned at their universities or even acquired new knowledge. Furthermore, less than40% of graduates felt unable to integrate into the new environment, and some adverse reactions, like nausea, vertigo and so on, had appeared. A small number of graduates, about15.24%, felt that their life was difficult to some extent in those days.

There are many post maladaptations existing, like fever, nervous breakdown and feeling lonely, etc.. However, all of them can be summarized six kinds of adaptation problems at their initial posts, including the problems of interpersonal adaption, emotional adaption, learning adaption, physiological adaption, social adaption and life adaptation.

Suggestions Alleviating Maladaptations

The fact that most of sample graduates can not adapt to their initial posts and were suffering from some maladaptations at their initial posts has been evidenced. What’s far more important is that how to alleviate these maladaptations. Some valid and targeted advice and suggestions for graduates, for their schools and for their companies are recommended.

Suggestions for Graduates

The survey found that when not adapting to their posts, all graduates had self-regulated, and all of them had reduced their sense of maladjustment effectively as Fig.3 shows.

As the Fig.4 says, more than half of graduates (about52.38%) chose to ease their discomfort by strengthening sleep and changing their jobs;46.67% of them thought self-suggestion is effective; more than one-third of them (34.29%) chose to leave their jobs to enjoy food or travel;29.52% of them took deep breaths to relax when feeling nervous;23.33% of them temporarily put their focus on other things; less than one-fifth (17.62%) talked with their families and friends as maladaptations happened; and few graduates sought some medical help instead.

Above data can see that graduates themselves play a key role in effectively alleviating their own sense of maladjustment. The sense, to some degree, can often be greatly reduced through their own measures.

First of all, in the face of stress, graduates, putting their mentality on right place and often giving themselves some hints as well, should believe that in their own efforts, they will be integrated into the new environment; Secondly, when feeling a little bit anxious, they, graduates, can temporarily put their work down and do something they like so as to shift their attention to some relatively relaxed things before returning to their posts; Last but not least, they can open up to their families and friends to tell not only their joy but also their troubles since by listening and sharing, anxiety and discomfort can often be dramatically alleviated.

Conclusion

This chapter includes three parts. Summary of the findings, implications and limitations and prospects for future study are curtly introduced below.

Summary of the Findings

There are some major findings based on above chapters:

1. This study learned that most of graduates generally have a sense of maladjustment when they are in the face of their initial posts.
2. These maladaptations were usually manifested as interpersonal, emotional, learning, physiological, social and life maladjustment problems roughly.
3. In order to alleviate above maladaptations, the first three most popular ways used by graduates were the increasement of sleep, changing their works and self-suggestion.
4. To make them adapt to new environment, the first three methods hoped their companies to use by graduates were the increasement of their work arrangement, holding meetings or parties usually and having opportunities to learn new skills.

Implications and Limitations

This study hoped to study the post adaptability of graduates adequately and comprehensively, while there are still many limitations because of lacking of full academic ability.

1. Only a group of graduates from one major of one university was selected as the research participants in the study, which leaded that the conclusion can only explain the current situation of the major to some degree. There is a limited value of reference to those peers who might have ability to study the post adaptability of other major graduates.

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