Age Recognition in Adults With Intellectual Disabilities and Research Portfolio

Clinical psychology, Cognitive psychology, Disability studies

Bell, Dorothy M

University:University of Glasgow

关键词: Clinical psychology, Cognitive psychology, Disability studies;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/74504/1/10992123.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

The ability of children to classify accurately their own ages and the ages of others has been the subject of very limited research. However, the literature is largely in agreement on there being progressive increases with chronological age, though there is disagreement on the age at which the skill becomes well developed. The processes look similar in the field of adults with intellectual disabilities although this area is extremely under-researched. Key factors may include age, the degree of institutionalisation, developmental level and IQ. This paper presents the findings of a research study investigating the age recognition of self and others in a group of 20 intellectually disabled adults from within a major institution and the wider community. Measures of age recognition using photographs, as well as standardised measures of intellectual ability and social adaptive behaviour, were administered and correlations were found between the ability to recognise age in others and developmental age and also IQ. Success on the task of age discrimination appears to more likely if the IQ is around 60 - 65 or above and if the person shows social adaptive behaviour at an age equivalence of 8 to 9 years and over. Also included was a task in which only the discrimination of whether the photographs were of adults or children was required, and this proved to be a simpler process for the participants. This study also demonstrates some of the discriminative stimuli used by adults with intellectual disabilities to ascertain the approximate age of a person.