International Review of Research in Mental Retardation (eBook)

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1997 | 1. Auflage
268 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
9780080857992 (ISBN)

Infos

This serial was established under the editorship of Dr. Norman R. Ellis in 1966. As a result of his editorial effort and the contributions of many authors, the serial is now recognized as the area's best source of reviews of behavioral research on mental retardation. From its inception, active research scientists and graduate students in mental retardation have looked to this serial as a major source of critical reviews of research and theory in the area.

Inhalt

Front Cover 1
International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, Volume 21 4
Copyright Page 5
Contents 6
Contributors 10
Preface 12
Chapter 1. An Outsider Looks at Mental Retardation: A Moral, A Model, and a Metaprinciple 16
I. Introduction 16
II. The PLANTE Model 20
III. Levels: The Building and Indirectness Concepts 25
IV. Empirical Studies on Building and Indirectness 29
V. Postscript 40
References 42
Chapter 2. Understanding Aggression in People with Intellectual Disabilities: Lessons from Other Populations 48
I. Introduction 48
II. Definitions and Prevalence of Aggression 49
III. Biological Influences on Aggression 55
IV. Environmental Factors and Aggression 59
V. Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Factors in Aggression 62
VI. Models of Aggressive Behavior 69
VII. Summary 73
References 74
Chapter 3. A Review of Self-Injurious Behavior and Pain in Persons with Developmental Disabilities 84
I. Introduction 84
II. Overview of Self-Injurious Behavior 86
III. Overview of Pain and Developmental Disabilities 92
IV. Overview of Stimulation-Produced Analgesia 104
V. Common Neurochemicals Involved in Self-Injurious Behavior, Pain, and Stimulation-Produced Analgesia 107
VI. Common Factors 115
VII. Summary and Conclusions 118
References 119
Chapter 4. Recent Studies in Psychopharmacology in Mental Retardation 128
I. Ushering in the Modem Era 128
II. Thematic Background 129
III. Research with Neuroleptic Drugs 137
IV. Research with Methylphenidate (Ritalin) 144
V. Whither the Future? 153
VI. Conclusions 155
References 156
Chapter 5. Methodological Issues in the Study of Drug Effects on Cognitive Skills in Mental Retardation 162
I. Introduction 162
II. General Considerations of Method and Procedure 166
III. Specific Measures and Procedures 177
IV. Summary and Conclusions 192
References 193
Chapter 6. The Behavior and Neurochemistry of the Methylazoxymethanol-Induced Microencephalic Rat 202
I. Introduction 202
II. The Effects of Prenatal Methylazoxymethanol Administration on Growth and Learning in the Rat 206
III. Alterations in Brain Structure and Neurochemistry Due to Prenatal Methylazoxymethanol Exposure 213
IV. Future Directions 229
References 232
Chapter 7. Longitudinal Assessment of Cognitive-Behavioral Deficits Produced by the Fragile-X Syndrome 236
I. An Identifiable Mutation on the X Chromosome Produces Inherited Mental Retardation 236
II. The Fragile-X Syndrome: Clinical, Cognitive, and Behavioral Features 238
III. Cognitive-Behavioral Aspects of Fragile-X Mental Retardation 241
IV. Longitudinal Changes in Cognitive and Adaptive Behavior in Other Mental Retardation Non-Fragile-X Populations 248
V. Directions for the Future 253
References 255
Index 264
Contents of Previous Volumes 276

Textauszug

Understanding Aggression in People with Intellectual Disabilities: Lessons from Other Populations

Glynis Murphy    Applied Psychology of Learning Disability Tizard Centre University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7LZ United Kingdom

I INTRODUCTION

The move from hospital living to community living for people with intellectual disabilities1 (or mental retardation) over the last 20 years has been undeniably positive. Nevertheless, it has become clear that certain behaviors, such as aggression, are unlikely to be tolerated in the community and that the display of such behaviors is a challenge to services (Emerson et al., 1988), which at times results in the reinstitutionalization of individuals (Sutter, Mayeda, Call, Yanagi, & Yee, 1980; Schalock, Harper, & Genung, 1981; Lakin, Hill, Hauber, Bruininks, & Heal, 1983). Moreover, challenging behaviors like aggression make individuals more likely to be subject to high doses of psychotropic medication (Stone, Alvarez, Ellman, Hom, & White, 1989), physical abuse (Rusch, Hall, & Griffin, 1986), personal or mechanical physical restraint (Spreat, Lipinski, Hall, & Halpin, 1986), and a generally poor quality of life.

The most common form of challenging behavior among individuals with intellectual disabilities is aggression (see section II), and the research literature abounds with operant assessment and intervention studies of aggressive behavior in this population. However, very few investigations of aggression among people with intellectual disabilities have included an examination of biological or general environmental factors, and few have considered emotional factors in aggression. Thus the majority of investigators (Gardner and his colleagues being the main exceptions) have taken a relatively narrow view and have not taken into account what is known about aggression in other populations, even though there is no reason to suppose that people with intellectual disabilities are different in a fundamental way from other people. Moreover, there has been an assumption that the operant model is an adequate representation of aggressive behavior among people with intellectual disabilities, so that a variety of background factors examined for other populations have been ignored, and there has been only one broader model proposed (Gardner & Cole, 1984). In this chapter the aim is to review a broad range of research on aggression, to delineate what is known about how this might apply to people with intellectual disabilities (often remarkably little is known about this), and to examine how these considerations might inform theoretical models of aggressive behavior in people with intellectual disabilities in order to improve our understanding of this most challenging of behaviors.

II DEFINITIONS AND PREVALENCE OF AGGRESSION

A Definitions

Defining the term aggression is widely acknowledged to be difficult. The dictionary definition of aggression is “an unprovoked attack,” implying that only the first act is aggressive, but definitions of aggression in psychology and sociology do not usually confine the term to an initial act (Archer & Browne, 1989, p. 3). There are, however, numerous different definitions (one reviewer found 106—Van der Dennen, 1980, quoted by Brain, 1984b), and the variations can be attributed mainly to the fact that some describe the behavior only but many “include assumptions about the instigators, the emotional concomitants or the intent of physically injurious actions” (Bandura, 1973, p. 2).

For example, Dollard, Boob, Miller, Mourrer, and Sears (1939) in their classic text defined aggression as any sequence of behavior, the goal response of which is the injury of the person toward whom it is directed. This definition has been criticized as too narrow because it would exclude many behaviors that would normally be considered to be aggressive, such as assaults, where the intent may be to gain material goods rather than to injure people. There appears therefore to be a need to include both hostile and instrumental aggression in the definition (see below), and Buss (1971) confined his definition of aggression to “the attempt to deliver noxious stimuli (whether or not that attempt is successful)” (p. 10). This was criticized as too broad by those working with animals, however, because it would include predatory attack (Brain, 1984b), and by those working with humans because it would include accidental injury (Archer & Browne, 1989, p. 5). As Archer and Browne commented (pp. 5–6), there appear to be three important features to aggression: one is the notion of intent, another is the presence of actions that cause damage, and the third is the idea of emotional arousal. They argued that if all three features were present there would be no disagreement about an act being aggressive, whereas if one or more features were absent, there would be disagreement. Likewise Geen (1990 p. 4) defined aggression as the delivery of noxious stimuli by one organism to another, with the intent to harm the victim, the aggressor expecting that the noxious stimuli will have their intended effect. Such views cause significant difficulties for those working with individuals who have no expressive language, because the notions of intent, expectation, and emotional arousal are likely to be unreliably applied with such individuals (and can be difficult to apply reliably with people without intellectual disabilities). For those working with people with intellectual disabilities, therefore, the best definition of aggression, and the one that will be adopted here, is that of Bandura (1973, p. 5): “behaviour that results in personal injury and in destruction of property,” where the injury may be physical or psychological.

There are at least two other terms that overlap somewhat with aggression: violence and hostility. The meanings of the three words are, however, distinct. Violence refers to physical rather than psychological injury and implies a social judgment attached to the term (Archer & Browne, 1989; Brain, 1984b). Hostility, on the other hand, implies that “a person seeks to inflict harm other than bodily damage and physical pain” (Zillmann, 1979, p. 33).

There have also been many disputes about how to classify aggression and some agreement that findings related to one type of aggression cannot necessarily be extrapolated to other types. Among those working with animals, classificatory systems have included that of Brain (1979), who proposed three categories of aggression (social, self-defensive, and parental attack) and that of Moyer (1968), who distinguished between predatory aggression, intermale aggression, fear-induced aggression, irritable aggression, territorial defense, maternal aggression, instrumental aggression, and sex-related aggression. For humans, it seems likely that certain of these forms are extremely unlikely to be encountered (e.g., predatory aggression), and that other forms do occur but are far less common than among lower animals (for example, territorial aggression and attacks on unfamiliar others). In addition, cognitive factors are important in some human aggression, and the main division proposed for human aggression has been between hostile, affective, or angry aggression and instrumental aggression (Feshbach, 1964; Sears, Macoby, & Levin, 1957). The former is characterized by distinctive patterns of activity in the autonomic nervous system (usually perceived as negative affect or anger) and the intent to harm or injure the provocateur, whereas the latter does not involve affective arousal, and the goal is not injury or harm to a victim but some other desired end (Geen, 1990).

B Prevalence

Studies of the prevalence of aggression have necessarily involved the measurement of aggressive behavior. A wide variety of techniques have been employed, from direct observation of aggressive acts in most operant work, to criminal statistics in much sociological research, to questionnaire methods in many psychological studies for the indirect measurement of aggressive behavior or angry or hostile feelings (e.g., Baggio, Suplee, & Curtis, 1981; Buss & Durkee, 1957; Caine, Foulds, & Hope, 1967; Nihira, Meyers, & Mink, 1974; Roger & Nesshoever, 1987; Speilberger, Jacobs, Russell, & Crane, 1983). The three methods each have disadvantages: direct observations in one environment or at one point in time may not reflect overall rates of behavior; criminal statistics offer little information on the true rates of behavior; questionnaire measures of aggressive behavior often have poor inter-interviewee reliability, whereas measures of anger and hostility may not relate closely to aggressive acts.

The prevalence of aggressive behavior has been examined in a number of ways, using all three types of measures. One source of data is the criminal statistics held by most countries, which focus mainly on adult violations of the criminal law. Clearly, where the crime is minor there is a risk of it not being reported so that minor acts of aggression may well not feature in the criminal statistics. For more major crimes, such as homicide, it is more likely that all events will be reported and recorded, and therefore homicide rates can be seen as giving an indication of the prevalence of extremely violent behavior in any community...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.5.1997
• Mitarbeit: Herausgeber (Serie): Norman W. Bray
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Entwicklungspsychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Klinische Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Pädagogische Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Neurologie
• ISBN-13: 9780080857992 / 9780080857992