An exploration of staff interpersonal relationships with their clients with severe intellectual disabilities who frequently display aggressive behaviour: And research portfolio

Davies, Clare (2006) An exploration of staff interpersonal relationships with their clients with severe intellectual disabilities who frequently display aggressive behaviour: And research portfolio. D Clin Psy thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The inter-personal history staff have with their clients might be considered crucial to understanding staff responses to individuals with severe intellectual disabilities who display challenging behaviour. Hence, this study used expressed emotion to examine staff client relationships and also investigated staff perceptions of intent relating to real life incidents of aggression presented by their client. The expressed emotion (EE) of 34 members of staff, supporting 20 individuals with severe ID who frequently displayed aggressive behaviour, was measured using the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS). Overall ratings were also made of the quality of the staff-client relationship. In addition, staff members completed a measure of burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and discussed their attributions of intent regarding a recalled incident of aggression. Only 1 out of the 34 staff was rated as having high EE, and few associations were found between the components of the EE measure, staff stress and their attributions of intent regarding incidents of aggression. The percentage of staff that perceived their clients' acts of aggression as intentional was similar to a previous study investigating staff that worked with individuals with mild or moderate ID. This suggests that regardless of the clients' level of ability the "hot" cognitions experiences at the time of the incident were of an interpersonal nature. Further investigation of these sociocognitive processes may contribute to the development of a more sophisticated model of staff behaviour.

• Item Type: Thesis (D Clin Psy)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Adviser: Andrew Jahoda
• Keywords: Clinical psychology, Medical personnel, Disability studies
• Date of Award: 2006
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2006-74244
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 23 Sep 2019 15:33
• Last Modified: 23 Sep 2019 15:33
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74244