Staff reactions to challenging behaviour: a preliminary investigation into their development over the course of an interaction

Section A explores the insights offered by the qualitative literature to our understanding of staff responses to challenging behaviour within services for people with intellectual disabilities. The trustworthiness of the literature is examined. The studies are reviewed using the cognitive-emotional model as a guide and allowing for other themes to emerge. The review concludes with a discussion of the implications for future research and clinical practice. Section B reports on a pilot study investigating staff reactions to challenging behaviour within services for people with intellectual disabilities. This study sought to explore the development of staff cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses to challenging behaviour over the course of challenging interactions. Video elicitation interviews were conducted with six staff members responding to the challenging behaviour of two service users. Interview data were subject to content analysis and an attributional analysis in order to assess their cognitive and emotional responses as they were at the time. In addition, staff behaviour was subject to descriptive and sequential analyses to explore their relationship with cognitive-emotional variables. Results indicated that staff experienced a wide range of cognitions and emotions during challenging interactions. Cognitions varied over the course of an incident. A tentative relationship was found between internal attributions of challenging behaviour, negative emotions and verbal responses by staff. Staff members spontaneously made causal attributions of service user behaviour during challenging interactions. Rather than being a stable attribute of the staff member, attributions seem to vary to a degree across the course of an interaction. This has implications for both research and clinical practice

Interpersonal factors influencing self-injury in people with learning disabilities : expressed emotion and attributions in residential care staff

The portfolio has three parts: a systematic literature review, an empirical study and a set of Appendices.Part one is a systematic literature review entitled ‘The Experiences of People with Mild-Moderate Learning Disabilities who Self-Injure: A Critical Review,’ in which empirical literature relating to the experiences of people with mild-moderate learning disabilities who self-injure is reviewed and critically evaluated. It aims to present an understanding of why people with learning disabilities self-injure, and what they find useful from services in relation to their self-injury.Part two is an empirical paper entitled ‘Expressed Emotion and Attributions in relation to Self-Injury in People with Learning Disabilities,’ which used quantitative methodologies to explore whether the level of expressed emotion in residential staff affects their perceptions of severity of self-injury in people with mild-moderate learning disabilities, and whether the staffs’ attributions also contribute to the perceived severity of self-injury. To achieve this, adult staff working in residential homes completed measures of expressed emotion, attributions and perceived severity of self-harm with the main researcher, which were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlations and non-parametric statistical tests. The results of this analysis are discussed in relation to current theories on self-injury, as well as the wider social and political context. The clinical implications and methodological limitations are also discussed and areas requiring further research are identified.Part three comprises of Appendices relating to the research, including a reflective statement on the process of conducting the research

The relationship between attributional style and information technology project perception

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between attributional style and Information Technology (IT) project perception at varying job responsibility levels. To achieve this thirty participants were recruited from a large government department in the three distinct job responsibility levels of support worker (i.e. individual who undertakes activities under general direction), line manager (i.e. individual who undertakes activities under limited direction and typically performs role of team leader) and executive manager (i.e. individual who undertakes activities that involve a high a level of management skill under broad direction) and interviewed using a modified Work Attributional Style Questionnaire (WASQ) with emergent themes subsequently explored through four focus groups. Based on the research findings all job responsibility levels tend to exhibit an optimistic attributional style that characterises positive work adjustment and self-esteem. However, the attribution of failure to causes that will persist in future projects by all job responsibility levels alongside the attribution of failure to causes that have impacts beyond the project by line and executive managers have the potential to undermine this tendency to exhibit an optimistic attributional style. Reasons for the attribution of failure to causes that have impacts beyond the project include the adverse impact on perceived professionalism by peers following failure, continued inability to influence stakeholders and/or management, strategic impact of the project failure and the daunting complexity of the social and technical challenges at the macro level Whilst the tendency to exhibit an optimistic attributional style by all job responsibility levels is indicative of positive work adjustment and selfesteem, practitioners should be cognisant that individuals exhibiting an optimistic attributional style are less likely to take responsibility for IT project failure (i.e. attribute failure to situational and uncontrollable causes). This has the potential to adversely impact organisational learning. To increase the likelihood of individuals taking responsibility for IT project failure practitioners should seek to encourage individuals to freely admit to faults and acknowledge errors whilst seeking to preserve their self-worth

A Study from Uganda: HIV Causal Attributional Structuring, Negative Affect, and Coping Among People with HIV/AIDS [Part I]

Weiner\u27s attribution theory suggests relationships between attributions, emotions, coping, and behavioral consequences (Weiner, 1986, Amirkhan, 1990). Studies supporting the theory are still limited especially in the health area and AIDS in particular

Imaginary relish and exquisite torture: The elaborated intrusion theory of desire

The authors argue that human desire involves conscious cognition that has strong affective connotation and is potentially involved in the determination of appetitive behavior rather than being epiphenomenal to it. Intrusive thoughts about appetitive targets are triggered automatically by external or physiological cues and by cognitive associates. When intrusions elicit significant pleasure or relief, cognitive elaboration usually ensues. Elaboration competes with concurrent cognitive tasks through retrieval of target-related information and its retention in working memory. Sensory images are especially important products of intrusion and elaboration because they simulate the sensory and emotional qualities of target acquisition. Desire images are momentarily rewarding but amplify awareness of somatic and emotional deficits. Effects of desires on behavior are moderated by competing incentives, target availability, and skills. The theory provides a coherent account of existing data and suggests new directions for research and treatment

The abstinence violation effect in child molesters

The Relapse Prevention (RP) approach to the treatment of addictive disorders (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985) and the model of the relapse process underlying it, is described and critically analysed. Its application to the treatment of sex offenders is described and a key RP construct, the abstinence violation effect, is critically examined. A reformulation of the abstinence violation effect is presented together with a discussion of the empirical support for this construct. Classification issues are also reviewed. Twenty-six incarcerated male child molesters were assessed, using the Differential Emotions Scale (Izard, Doughty, Bloxom, & Kotsch, 1974) and the Four Attributional Dimension Scale (Benson, 1989), at three points (background, lapse, and relapse) while they listened to an audiotaped recording of a description of their most typical offence chain. Subjects were also classified as either fixated or regressed according to age of onset of their offending, quality of the relationship with the victim, lifestyle issues, stress, and drug use. Eighteen subjects experienced an AVE at the point of relapse and seven as the result of a lapse. There were significant increases in most negative emotions and decreases in interest over the relapse chain. There were significantly higher disgust, contempt, hostility, fear, shame, shyness and anger scores reported by those showing an AVE. Conversely the AVE group showed significantly lower scores for joy and surprise. There were no significant differences on any of the four attributional dimensions across the relapse process but those showing an AVE reported significantly more uncontrollability and higher stability scores. The results also indicated that there appear to be different types of AVE that, in conjunction with the generally high levels of positive emotion at the lapse point, reflects the important role of emotion in the relapse process. Concerning classification, there were no differences in the frequency with which fixated or regressed offenders experienced an AVE, although five out of the seven experiencing this reaction at the point of lapsing were regressed subjects, as were twelve out of eighteen at relapse. Fixated subjects reported more positive emotions and less negative emotions than regressed offenders. In addition fixated subjects perceived the cause of their offending as more stable than regressed offenders. For subjects experiencing the AVE at relapse, those classified as fixated saw the cause of the relapse as more stable than did regressed subjects. The significance of these results for Pithers (1990) RP model, clinical practice and research, is discussed, along with limitations of the study

An experimental investigation using Cognitive Bias Modification for paranoid attributions in a non-clinical sample: Effects upon interpretation bias, emotions, and paranoia following a stressful paranoia induction.

Background: Bentall, Corcoran, Howard, Blackwood, and Kinderman (2001) suggested that paranoid individuals display an ‘external-personal bias’ of blaming negative events on other people rather than situational circumstances or themselves, however, the literature remains equivocal. This study tested whether Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretations (CBM-I) could train a positive attribution bias and affect subsequent reactions to a stressor designed to induce paranoia. Method: Non-clinical participants were randomly assigned to positive CBM-I training (n = 18), or a neutral control CBM-I (n = 17). Participants were then subject to a stressful paranoia induction: seeing a live video of themselves whilst accessing negative self-beliefs and being given negative feedback when attempting an impossible task. The subsequent effects upon interpretation bias and state paranoia and emotions were assessed. Results: After the paranoia induction, participants in the positive CBM-I group demonstrated a more positive interpretation bias than those in the neutral control group: they endorsed less paranoid interpretations, although there was no difference in ratings of positive interpretations. However, both groups reported a similar increase in state paranoia and suspiciousness after the stressful paranoia induction, and there was no relationship between the trained interpretation bias and the changes in state paranoia. Unexpectedly, pre-existing trait paranoia was correlated with state paranoia and interpretation bias after the stressor. xiv Conclusions: This study demonstrated that CBM-I can train non-clinical participants to endorse less paranoid interpretations. Pre-existing trait paranoia had a stronger relationship to interpretative bias and state paranoia under stress than the CBM-I. The lack of a subsequent effect on emotional reactions suggests that further research is necessary to refine the materials and procedure, and test for possible small or varied effects in a larger sample. Unfortunately, significant methodological problems limit the conclusions that can be drawn about the theory that an externalpersonal attribution bias causes paranoia