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Biomedical subjects

P Sturmey

Publications and source records attributed to P Sturmey.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

The Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behaviour: its reliability and internal consistencies.

The inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities, and internal consistencies of the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior (Reiss 1987) were evaluated on a random sample of adults with moderate through profound mental retardation living in an institutional setting. Generally, the Reiss Screen showed good inter-rater reliability, modest to good test-retest and good internal consistency. This suggests that the Reiss Screen has moderate to good psychometric robustness.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

The Behavior Problem Inventory: a further replication of its factor structure.

The Behavior Problem Inventory was administered to a random sample of people living in a state school. The scores from all items and from self-injury items only were factor analysed. The three scales of the Behavior Problem Inventory were highly internally consistent. Factor analysis of all the items showed some similarities to previous studies, and factor analysis of the self-injury items showed a very close correspondence to two previous studies. The results are discussed in terms of the design of this instrument, the possible multi-factorial nature of self-injury and future research on the design of measures of assessments of maladaptive behaviours in people with developmental disabilities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Assessing the functions of self-injurious behavior: a case of assessment failure.

Seven attempts to assess the function of self-injurious behavior in a person with profound mental retardation are described. Although repeated correlational and experimental methods were implemented to determine the functional role of this behavior no clear functions were identified. A clinical implication of this case and that this methodology is not all-embracing. Different assumptions should be explored after substantial efforts have failed.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Group engagement: a conceptual analysis.

Group engagement is an approach which further advances the concept of group engagement but is empirically weak in identifying those behaviours that are related to learning. A definition of group engagement which emphasized age-appropriate, functional behaviours which fall within the set curriculum has finally been developed. This approach is the most conceptually sophisticated approach, is ideologically acceptable, and has some empirical validation. Future research should concentrate on articulating clear principles to guide operationalization and validation. The development of several different operationalizations of engagement for clearly specified different purposes is recommended. Group engagement measures should be subject to greater psychometric analysis. The use of disaggregation of group engagement to analyse the behaviour of individuals and component behaviours is recommended.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Validity of the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior.

The validity of the subscales of the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior in an institutional population was examined by correlating these scores with the Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults (PIMRA), the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, and programmatic measures, such as psychiatric diagnoses, psychotropic medication, behavior therapy programs, and presence on a dual diagnosis unit. Results of this study broadly replicated the previous research on the validity of the Reiss total score. Evidence for the validity of the subscales was more limited, possibly due to limitations in the internal consistency of the Reiss or PIMRA subscales.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1992

Application of the Attention/Distraction: Inhibition/Excitation Scale to a group of mainstream children.

The Attention: Distraction/Inhibition Excitation Scale (ADIECAS) is a measure of individual differences hitherto used with children with special needs. The present study shows that the ADIECAS retains adequate factor structure and internal consistency with children who do not have special needs. Factor analysis yielded three dimensions: Attention-Distraction, Excitation-Inhibition and Responsiveness to Consequences. These factors predicted reading age, the discrepancy between chronological and reading ages and whether or not the child had been referred for statementing.

Aptitude↗
PubMed1991

Psychometric assessment of psychiatric disorders in people with learning difficulties (mental handicap): a review of measures.

Instruments designed to assess psychiatric disorders in people with learning difficulties (mental handicap) were critically reviewed from a psychometric perspective. Major trends were found in the assessment of psychopathology related to DSM-III and depressive disorders although research in other areas was patchy. Although some psychometrically sophisticated measures were identified the area was characterized by an absence of important psychometric data for many measures. Future research should attend to developing assessments of schizophrenia, psycho-sexual disorders, adjustment disorders and the validation of screening procedures and instrument formats. Future studies should include more people with severe and profound learning difficulties.

Humans↗
PubMed1991

Validation of the Pethna toy through changes in collateral behaviours.

The Pethna toy is a recently developed toy designed for people with severe and profound mental handicaps. It delivers sensory consequences for the use of simple manipulanda. Two experimental studies evaluated the Pethna toy by monitoring changes in multiple, collateral behaviours. Experiment I demonstrated statistically significant decreases in turn away and stereotyped behaviour and increases in smiling. Experiment II demonstrated highly idiosyncratic changes in collateral behaviours in three adults with multiple handicaps. In all cases, turn away decreased. The role of response-response relationship, subject attention and relationship of sensory behaviours to stereotypies are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The Motivation Assessment Scale: inter-rater reliability and internal consistency in a British sample.

Inter-rater reliability of the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) was assessed for independent ratings of 12 adolescents and adults with severe/profound mental handicap. Correlations of item and subscale scores across raters were low. The internal consistency of subscales and total scores of the MAA was high. It is suggested that future research using the MAS should include an analysis of the reliability of this measure and features of the raters and subjects which might limit the robustness of the MAS.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

The psychometric properties of the Behaviour Assessment Record (the BAR schedule).

Two hundred and forty-seven completed Behaviour Assessment Records (BAR) for people with learning difficulties living in hospital, community residential facilities or the family home were subjected to item analysis and factor analysis. The instrument as a whole proved to be highly internally consistent, although the corrected item-total correlation coefficients suggest the redundancy of some items on individual sub-scales. Factor analysis produced a two-factor solution accounting for 32.9 and 10.8% of the variance. These factors were named Personal self-care and Use of public amenities. Summative scales based upon these factors were highly internally consistent. Comparisons are made between the internal consistency and factor structure of the BAR and those of similar measures of adaptive behaviour, such as the Social Training Achievement Record (Sturmey et al., 1988), the Pathways to Independence Checklist (Walsh & McConkey, 1989), and the Adaptive Behavior Scale (Nihira, 1969a, b, 1976).

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1991

Staff perceptions of sadness among people with mental handicaps.

This study investigated the use of an informant behaviour checklist to examine carestaff perceptions of sadness among a hospital population of people with mental handicaps. Using Cohen's kappa statistic there were only three checklist items which had acceptable levels of inter-rater agreement (physical aggression, crying and verbal abuse) with no significant variation in the incidence of those behaviours according to the severity of mental handicap. The findings suggest that future research might attend to concepts of sadness among carestaff and their ability to identify sad emotional states in a reliable manner.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

A classroom rating scale for use with mentally handicapped children: a replication of the ADIECAS.

The Attention/Distraction: Inhibition/Excitation Classroom Assessment Scale (Evans, 1975; Evans & Hogg, 1984) was administered to 80 children with severe learning difficulties with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and subscales of the British Ability Scales (BAS). Factor analysis replicated the Attention/Distraction scale but the Inhibition/Excitation scale split into a verbal component and the remaining items. A new factor named responsivity to consequences was identified. Attention/Distraction showed good concurrent validity with the BAS and PPVT. This study shows the robustness of the Attention/Distraction: Inhibition/Excitation Classroom Assessment Scale as a measure of individual differences in children with severe learning difficulties.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

The Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults. Internal consistencies and relationship to behaviour problems.

The Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults, a recently developed, empirically derived measure of psychiatric disturbance for the mentally handicapped, gives a total of eight scales which correspond to DSM-III diagnostic categories. This paper reports its psychometric properties in a British population and the psychometric properties of three scales derived by factor analysis. The internal consistencies of the scales were only barely acceptable in this sample and less acceptable than in previous studies.

Humans↗
PubMed1989

The psychometric properties of the Social Training and Achievement Record: II. Reliabilities and concurrent validities.

Three studies are reported which investigated the test-retest and inter-rater reliabilities of the Social Training and Achievement Record as well as concurrent validities with intelligence. Reliabilities of total and sub-scale scores as well as individual items are reported. Test-retest reliabilities over the period of one month were good for total scores, subscale scores and individual items. Inter-rater reliabilities were more modest. At times, inter-rater reliabilities of a small proportion of items were only at chance levels. Concurrent validities with Raven's Matrices and the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale were comparable with other measures of adaptive behaviour. The role of direct observation in the assessment of adaptive behaviour, in particular with respect to individual skills being selected for teaching, is discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1988

Writing behavioural objectives: an evaluation of a simple, inexpensive method.

This study demonstrated experimental control of nurse compliance with writing behavioural objectives in a National Health Service adult training unit for mentally handicapped adults. At the baseline, low rates of compliance in writing complete behavioural objectives (i.e. an objective referring to a resident, an action, a prompt and a target) were identified. A simple environmental manipulation, namely redesigning the activity charts, led to an increase in writing complete behavioural objectives. Experimental control was demonstrated using a multiple baseline design across two groups of staff. Nurse compliance with writing adequate prompts and targets was less than compliance with writing names and behaviours. Greater degrees of compliance may require alternative methods of staff management such as feedback procedures.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1988

A functional analysis of multiple aberrant responses: a refinement and extension of Iwata et al.'s (1982) methodology.

This study extends an operant methodology for the analysis of variables which control aberrant responses displayed by mentally handicapped people. The proportion of time spent in individual, stereotyped topographies by three profoundly mentally handicapped subjects was observed by momentary time-sampling whilst they were repeatedly exposed to four analogue environments: Alone, Social Disapproval, Academic Demand and Unstructured Play. Two of the three subjects showed replicable effects of the analogue environments. One subject showed evidence of an interaction between stereotyped topography and type of analogue environment. This study shows that the operant methodology of Iwata et al. (1982), originally developed with self-injurious responses, can be successfully refined and extended to the analysis of a wider range of aberrant topographies.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

The Aberrant Behaviour Checklist: a British replication and extension of its psychometric properties.

The Aberrant Behaviour Checklist was administered to 209 British mentally handicapped adults in two large residential facilities. This sample included a substantial proportion (45%) of non-ambulant people not included in previous studies. The five-factor solution originally reported by Aman et al. (1985a) was replicated using both four-point ratings and dichotomously recoded rating. For both methods of scoring, the five scales derived from Aman et al.'s original factor analysis remained highly internally consistent. Dichotomously coded ratings may offer the advantage over four-point ratings of retaining the same factor structure with better reliability.

Adult↗