The expression and assessment of emotions and internal states in individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities

The expression of emotions and internal states by individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities is a comparatively under-researched area. Comprehensive or standardised methods of assessing or understanding the emotions and internal states within this population, whose ability to communicate is significantly compromised, do not exist. The literature base will be discussed and compared to that within the general population. Methods of assessing broader internal states, notably depression, anxiety, and pain within severe or profound intellectual disabilities are also addressed. Finally, this review will examine methods of assessing internal states within genetic syndromes, including hunger, social anxiety and happiness within Prader-Willi, Fragile-X and Angelman syndrome. This will then allow for the identification of robust methodologies used in assessing the expression of these internal states, some of which may be useful when considering how to assess emotions within individuals with intellectual disabilities

Teaching Children With Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disabilities to Select and Produce Facial Expressions of Emotion Using Modelling and Feedback

The ability to produce facial expressions accurately is essential for effective communication of thoughts and feelings. Children need to select the facial expression to produce in a given situation, while considering the social context, and produce it accurately. This is especially important for children with intellectual disabilities who often experience difficulties in verbal communication. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways of teaching children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities to select and produce facial expressions appropriate to various situations. The theoretical framework of this study suggests that providing facial modelling and mirror feedback to children will increase the accuracy with which children with intellectual disabilities select and product facial expressions of emotion. Forty children were presented with six vignettes, and were asked to respond by selecting and producing an appropriate facial expression. A 2 (modelling: present or absent) x 2 (mirror: present or absent) x 3 (facial expression: happiness, disgust and surprise) design was used, in which mirror and modelling were between-subjects variables, and facial expression was a within-subjects variable. Effects of the modelling, but not the mirror, produced significant increases in children\u27s selection and production of facial expressions. Happiness was found to be the easiest expression to produce. Disgust was found to be more difficult than happiness, while surprise was more difficult than disgust to produce. Both surprise and disgust were improved significantly by the modelling, and it was concluded that modelling is an effective and inexpensive technique for teaching social skills in the classroom

Psychosocial sources of aggression in young adults with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND: Aggression can have a wide range of damaging consequences for both perpetrators and victims. Theoretical and empirical studies into problems of aggression increasingly show the importance of social and cognitive factors in aggressive behaviour. Such research has commonly been approached through the framework of the Social-Information Processing (SIP) model. SIP explains social behaviours by the sequence of cognitive processes that occur between encountering a social stimulus and enacting a response to it. Crucially, it is apparent that particular processing styles, such as the way in which people interpret others’ behaviour, play important roles in aggression. However, while SIP has long been used to explain aggression in the non-disabled population, it is only in more recent years that this approach has been applied to people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This is important because a significant minority of people with IDs demonstrate frequent aggressive behaviour. Although several studies have already indicated that particular cognitive processing tendencies and aptitudes contribute to aggression in adults with ID, no research has considered younger people in the transition to adulthood. To this end, the present thesis sought to investigate the possible influences of certain psychosocial factors on this group of young people with mild to moderate IDs. OBJECTIVES: To identify which specific factors to investigate, a systematic review was conducted of existing research into SIP and aggression with people who have IDs. On the basis of these findings, the thesis examined 1) the social interactions that typically elicit anger, 2) experiences of parental aggression 3) ability to discern affect from dynamic social cues and 4) beliefs about the consequences of aggressive and submissive behaviour. With the review also stressing the importance of examining aggression at specific developmental stages, the studies focused on individuals in the transition from adolescence to adulthood (between 16 and 20 years). Although this stage is thought to be important in the development of cognitive factors associated with aggression, there is little or no research in this area with young adults with IDs. METHODS: The thesis comprised four distinct research studies. Each adopted a group-comparison design, comparing aggressive and non-aggressive young people with IDs. To evaluate the extent to which findings were specific to people with IDs, additional comparisons were conducted between aggressive and non-aggressive individuals without IDs. For Study 1, 26 young adults with IDs and 20 non-disabled young adults completed a semi-structured interview about a recent experience of interpersonal conflict. Participants were asked to describe their beliefs and feelings about the event and their subsequent response. Studies 2, 3 and 4 used data from a second phase of data collection involving 46 young people with and 48 people without IDs. Study 2 used a task in which participants were asked to rank different types of social conflict in order of provocativeness. The author developed these scenarios to reflect the experiences of conflict reported by participants in Study 1. Participants also indicated how recently they had encountered each type of scenario. Study 3 used motion-capture stimuli of people walking in different emotional states to examine whether groups differed in how they encode dynamic social cues. Study 4 used provocative vignettes to examine whether aggressive young people with IDs expect different outcomes from aggressive and submissive responses to such scenarios. RESULTS: Study 1 found that participants with IDs were more likely to encounter conflict with strangers or peers outside their friendship group. They were also more likely to describe incidents of aggression and to characterise people with whom they were in conflict globally as “bad” and to perceive their actions as being personally directed at them. Study 2 did not suggest that experiences of being victimised by peers were more common for people with IDs, but did show that aggressive individuals were more likely to encounter incidents of physical aggression from peers. Parental conflict was the most recently encountered, but was perceived to be the least provocative form of conflict for all groups. In Study 3, no group differences were found in accuracy or response tendencies for the emotion recognition task. Aggressive and non-aggressive participants with IDs in Study 4 did not predict different outcomes form aggression and submission. However, the aggressive participants without IDs predicted more positive outcomes from aggression and more negative outcomes for submission. While aggressive participants with IDs were more likely to give aggressive responses, they were just as likely as the non-aggressive group to respond actively (assertively or aggressively) rather than passively. CONCLUSION: The findings of this thesis, viewed from the perspective of the SIP model, suggest that there are key cognitive and contextual differences between individuals who show frequent aggression, both with and without IDs. Although, somewhat surprisingly, emotion recognition skills did not appear to be associated with a tendency toward aggressive behaviour, the non-ID aggressive and non-aggressive groups differed in their anticipated outcomes for aggressive and submissive behaviour. The context in which conflict occurred also appeared to differ between those young people with and without IDs. However, the absence of some predicted findings from these studies may be related to methodological shortcomings; these possible limitations are considered, and directions for future work are suggested. Applications for clinical practice and policy are also discussed and recommendations for future research are given

The expression and assessment of emotions and internal states in individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities.

The expression of emotions and internal states by individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities is a comparatively under-researched area. Comprehensive or standardized methods of assessing or understanding the emotions and internal states within this population, whose ability to communicate is significantly compromised, do not exist. The literature base will be discussed and compared to that applicable to the general population. Methods of assessing broader internal states, notably depression, anxiety, and pain within severe or profound intellectual disabilities are also addressed. Finally, this review will examine methods of assessing internal states within genetic syndromes, including hunger, social anxiety, and happiness within Prader–Willi, Fragile-X and Angelman syndrome. This will allow for identification of robust methodologies used in assessing the expression of these internal states, some of which may be useful when considering how to assess emotions within individuals with intellectual disabilities.Full Tex

Recognizing children's emotions in child abuse and neglect

Past research has suggested that parents' ability to recognize their children's emotions is associated with an enhanced quality of parent–child interactions and appropriateness of parental caregiving behavior. Although this association has also been examined in abusive and neglectful parents, the results are mixed and do not adequately address child neglect. Based on the Social Information Processing model of child abuse and neglect, we examined the association between mothers' ability to recognize children's emotions and self- and professionals-reported child abuse and neglect. The ability to recognize children's emotions was assessed with an implicit valence classification task and an emotion labeling task. A convenience sample of 166 mothers (78 with at least one child referred to Child Protection Services) completed the tasks. Child abuse and neglect were measured with self-report and professionals-report instruments. The moderating role of mothers' intellectual functioning and socioeconomic status were also examined. Results revealed that abusive mothers performed more poorly on the negative emotions recognition task, while neglectful mothers demonstrated a lower overall ability in recognizing children's emotions. When classifying the valence of emotions, mothers who obtained higher scores on child neglect presented a higher positivity bias particularly when their scores in measures of intellectual functioning were low. There was no moderation effect for socioeconomic status. Moreover, the results for child abuse were mainly observed with self-report measures, while for child neglect, they predominantly emerged with professionals-report. Our findings highlight the important contribution of the social information processing model in the context of child maltreatment, with implications for prevention and intervention addressed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Insights from mechanistic and digital intervention approaches

Eine effektive Förderung des Sozialverhaltens autistischer Kinder erfordert ein tiefgehendes Verständnis der Ursachen maladaptiver Reaktionen und die Bereitstellung eines leicht verfügbaren Förderangebots. Hier haben digitale Angebote ein großes Potential. Ebenso wie bei der Ursachenforschung mangelt es jedoch an Forschungsansätzen, welche eine Vielzahl an kognitiven und emotionalen Prozessen in die digitale Förderung integrieren. Dementsprechend untersuchte die Dissertation zunächst das Zusammenspiel verschiedener Ursachen aggressives Sozialverhaltens anhand eines etablierten Modells der sozial-kognitiven Informationsverarbeitung. Durch die Integration verschiedener Facetten der Empathie und deren zugrundeliegende Kompetenzen in ein digitales Förderangebot sollte im zweiten Schritt eine Verbesserung des Sozialverhaltens autistischer Grundschüler:innen erreicht werden. Es zeigte sich, dass Emotionsdysregulation verschiedene Formen aggressiven Sozialverhaltens und damit assoziierte feindselige Attributionen verstärkt. Letztere stand vor allem mit verbalen und verdeckten Aggressionsformen sowie mit guten Emotionserkennungsfertigkeiten im Zusammenhang. Eine Verbesserung des Sozialverhaltens und der Emotionsregulation konnte mittelfristig durch das sechswöchige, eltern-begleitete eLearningprogramm „Zirkus Empathico“ erreicht werden. Die multizentrische, randomisiert kontrollierte Studie ergab zudem kurzfristige und moderate Interventionseffekte für Empathie und Emotionserkennung als primäre Endpunkte. Insgesamt unterstreicht die Dissertation die Validität etablierter Modelle der sozialen Informationsverarbeitung sowie die Relevanz, diese zukünftigen Forschungs- und Interventionsansätzen zugrunde zu legen. Durch die Integration verschiedener sozio-emotionaler Kompetenzen scheint die digitale Intervention Zirkus Empathico prosoziales Verhalten autistischer Kinder auf effektive und praktikable Weise zu fördern.Effective training of autistic children`s social behavior requires an in-depth understanding of the causes of maladaptive responses and the provision of easily accessible support services. In this context, digital interventions have great potential. However, there is a lack of research approaches that integrate a variety of cognitive and emotional processes into both, explanation and digital support. The present dissertation first examined the interplay of different causes of aggressive social behavior by applying an established model of social-cognitive information processing to a sample of autistic elementary school students. Second, by integrating different facets of empathy and their underlying competencies into a digital program, the social behavior of autistic elementary school children should be improved. First, it was shown that emotion dysregulation strengthens various forms of aggressive social behavior and associated hostile attribution biases. The latter was mainly related to verbal and covert forms of aggression and good emotion recognition skills. Second, the parent-assisted eLearning program "Zirkus Empathico" led to a medium-term improvement in social behavior and emotion regulation after a six-week training. In addition, the multicenter randomized controlled trial showed moderate intervention effects on empathy and emotion recognition as primary outcomes, which were no longer detectable three months later. Overall, the dissertation highlights the validity of established models of social information processing and the relevance of using them as a foundation for future research and intervention. By integrating various socio-emotional competencies, the digital intervention Zirkus Empathico seems to strengthen autistic children’s prosocial behavior effectively and feasibly

An Investigation Into the Assessment of Autobiographical Memory in People With Mild Mental Retardation

Autobiographical memory is the term given to memory for life events. Research with people who do not have learning disabilities has highlighted that the ability to recall specific personal experiences and events from the past has important implications for the development of self-concept and social relatedness. In addition, autobiographical memory impairment is linked with problem-solving difficulties and depression. People with mild learning disabilities typically demonstrate poorly formulated self-concept, impaired social relatedness and problem-solving difficulties, as well as experiencing depression. It is suggested that these difficulties may be linked in some way to autobiographical memory. There is no published research addressing the assessment of autobiographical memory or the role of this aspect of memory in people with mild learning disabilities, and it is argued that investigating this area would bring together a number of important areas of learning disabilities research and provide a platform for future investigation

Subtypes of Aggressive Behavior in Children with Autism in the Context of Emotion Recognition, Hostile Attribution Bias, and Dysfunctional Emotion Regulation

The causes of aggressive behavior in children with autism are poorly understood, which limits treatment options. Therefore, this study used behavioral testing and parent reports of 60 children with autism to investigate the interplay of emotion misinterpretation and hostile attribution bias in the prediction of different aggressive behaviors. Further, the additional impact of dysfunctional emotion regulation was examined. Path analyses indicated that hostile attribution bias increased verbal and covert aggression but not physical aggression and bullying. Dysfunctional emotion regulation had an additional impact on bullying, verbal aggression, and covert aggression. Emotion recognition was positively associated with hostile attribution bias. These findings provide a first insight into a complex interplay of socio-emotional variables; longitudinal studies are needed to examine causal relationships.stiftung irene (germany)berlin school of mind and brainmedical-scientific funds of the mayor of vienna (austria)Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1034)Peer Reviewe

Communication in young people with intellectual impairments: the influence of partnership

Adults with intellectual impairments experience frequent communication breakdown in their everyday interactions. This can result from impairment of the linguistic skills required for effective communication and/or difficulties dealing with non-verbal information. Problems also exist, however, in the way that some non-impaired speakers, such as care providers, approach these communicative episodes. This thesis investigates communication in young adults with intellectual impairments with three different communication partners. These were a care provider, a student and a peer with intellectual impairments. Student partners were previously unknown to the main participants and not experienced in communicating with people with intellectual impairments. Communication structure and process are investigated according to the number of words and turns used to complete a co-operative problem-solving task and the types of conversational acts used by speakers and listeners. Non-verbal communication is investigated through the use of one non-verbal signal, gaze, during the task dialogues. An interactionist approach is taken to communication, where outcome or success is viewed as a product of the collaborative efforts of speakers and listeners. Communication is seen as multi-modal and involving the exchange of information via the verbal and non-verbal channels. The results show that when both parties were intellectually impaired performance was poorest. More surprisingly, dyads including a student partner communicated more effectively and efficiently than where the partner was a carer. One reason for this may be that carers used more complex, open questions to introduce new information into the task, and these were distracting rather than useful. Overusing open questions may be problematic for this population and less effective at establishing shared understanding than where listeners check their own interpretation of previous messages, a strategy preferred by student partners. Non-verbal signals can help to ease constraints on communication by providing interlocutors with feedback information on the levels of mutual understanding