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The main focus of this thesis is to investigate the mental worlds of intellectually disabled people. It is intended to provide information about how members of this population construe their environments and how recent changes in the philosophy of care have affected their construct systems. Personal construct theory is used as the model that underpins the studies in the thesis and a modified version of repertory grid technique is developed and used to explore physical and social aspects of each subject's environment. After a pilot study was conducted to establish the viability of using modified rep grid techniques with this population, a longitudinal study over a four year period investigated the social constructs of 15 intellectually disabled residents. Eight were still in an institution at the end of the study and seven had moved into the community during that period. A comparison group of eight staff were sampled at the beginning of the longitudinal study. Information is made available concerning the size and complexity of each subject's construct system. It was found that the size and content of the construct systems of intellectually disabled people is limited relative to the comparison group and does not change significantly over four years. construct systems were analysed using two computerbased programs that solved the patterns of interrelationships and a graphic presentation of the network of significant correlations between constructs was completed. It was found that the graphic presentation was adequate for the intellectually disabled respondents but not for the comparison group. No difference was found between the community-based group of intellectually disabled people and those still resident in the hospital after four years. A further study with 17 intellectually disabled people, parents and non-parents, found no difference in their construct systems of children. These results are discussed in the context of the present philosophy and practice of normalisation and social role valorisation.

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The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of "work" as a reinforcing stimulus in a behavior modification program designed to eliminate disruptive talking. A response-cost procedure was established whereby the reinforcement was made contingent upon the behavior of eight students with learning disabilities.

Staff perceptions of challenging behaviour and other "challenging problems" in their work with people with learning disabilities are likely to have a significant influence on how they respond to clients and to interventions by Clinical Psychologists. However, accounts of staff perceptions have failed to produce a coherent theory grounded in the experience of staff themselves. The aim of the present study was to develop a theory of how staff describe and explain challenging problems. Grounded theory methodology was used. Ten Support Workers and eight Home Managers in residential learning disability services described their understanding of a challenging problem in relation to a client during senustructured interviews. Client behaviour was the most commonly cited problem. Results suggested that staff face dilemmas concerning whether to see behaviour as communication or a behaviour problem, how to balance firm responding with kindness, and how to deal with their unpleasant feelings evoked by the work. A theoretical account of the results suggested that staffs' emotional distance from or closeness to a client determines how they resolve the dilemmas. The theoretical account should be subjected to further testing. It implies that staff need to be aware of their emotions and personal motivations in their work if they are to resolve the work dilemmas in the best interests of clients. Clinical Psychologists may be well placed to facilitate personal development programmes for staff to foster this awareness.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Margaret Semrud-Clikeman. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

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This thesis is a pilot study of ongoing research concerning the nature of impairments in adults with language learning disorders. The current study assessed lexical-semantic organization in14 adults with language learning disorders (LLD), ages 18;9 to 24;3 and 14 adults with no history of language impairment (TD) matched for age, gender, and education with a list recall task adapted from Watson, Balota, and Roediger (2001). All adults were enrolled in a four-year university. No significant differences were found on accuracy of list recall in LLD and TD. Similar to previous research, list recall for semantically- related words was higher in accuracy than for phonologically- related words for both LLD and TD participants. All participants were more likely to accurately recall the words at the beginning and at end of the lists. The LLD group showed a positive correlation between oral language and phonological processing performance with accuracy of recall. These results suggest that adults with language learning disorders who are enrolled in a four-year university are able to implement strategies that compensate for any language difference that may exist. Also, the similarities in patterns and accuracy of list recall suggest similar lexical-semantic organization in adults with LLD and TD. / text