Recognizing primary emotions in communication in adults with intellectual disability

Abstract

The ability to recognize emotions helps people understand social situations and plan their own behavior in specific social contexts. Paralinguistic segments of communication (facial expression and prosodic characteristics) significantly contribute to drawing conclusions on the speaker's emotions, and according to some authors, they are considered even more dominant and more reliable than linguistic segments in decoding emotions tasks. The aim of this paper was to determine the ability to recognize primary emotions in communication with the help of paralinguistic indicators, in adults with mild and moderate intellectual disability. The sample consisted of 60 adult participants with mild (N=25) and moderate (N=35) intellectual disability, equal with regard to gender and type of housing. The participants with mild intellectual disability were aged 20-55 (M=31.24; SD=8.84), while those with moderate intellectual disability were 22-55 years of age (M=34.17; SD=8.76). The Assessment Battery for Communication, ABaCo, (Sacco et al., 2008) was used for assessing the ability to understand emotions in communication. The obtained results showed that adults with intellectual disability experienced most difficulties in detecting fear. By applying the T test for independent samples, it was determined that there were no statistically significant differences between men and women both with mild and moderate ID with regard to their ability to recognize emotions (p>0,05). With regard to the type of housing, statistically significant differences were obtained only in the group of participants with moderate intellectual disability in detecting fear (t (33)=-3.51; p=0.01), in favor of those who lived in institutions. The length of living in an institution positively and moderately correlated with the ability to recognize anger in adults with intellectual disability (r=0.46, p lt 0.05).

Sposobnost prepoznavanja emocija pomaže osobama da razumeju socijalne situacije i da planiraju sopstveno ponašanje u određenim društvenim kontekstima. Paralingvistički segmenti komunikacije (facijalna ekspresija i prozodijske karakteristike) značajno doprinose zaključivanju o govornikovim emocijama, a prema nekim autorima čak se smatraju dominantnijim i pouzdanijim od lingvističkih segmenata u zadacima dekodiranja emocija. Cilj ovog rada je utvrđivanje sposobnosti prepoznavanja primarnih emocija u komunikaciji uz pomoć paralingvističkih pokazatelja, kod odraslih osoba sa lakom i umerenom intelektualnom ometenošću. Uzorak čini 60 odraslih ispitanika sa lakom (N=25) i umerenom intelektualnom ometenošću (N=35), ujednačenih prema polu i tipu stanovanja. Starosna dob ispitanika sa lakom intelektualnom ometenošću kreće se od 20 do 55 godina (AS=31,24; SD=8,84), a ispitanika sa umerenom intelektualnom ometenošću od 22 do 52 godine (AS=34,17; SD=8,76). Za procenu sposobnosti razumevanja emocija u komunikaciji korišćena je skala Razumevanja emocija u komunikaciji iz Baterije za procenu komunikacije (The Assessment Battery for Communication, ABaCo, Sacco et al., 2008). Dobijeni rezultati pokazuju da odrasle osobe sa intelektualnom ometenošću ispoljavaju najviše poteškoća u detektovanju emocije straha. Primenom T testa za nezavisne uzorke, utvrđeno je i da ne postoje statistički značajne razlike između muškaraca i žena sa lakom IO, kao ni sa umerenom IO u pogledu sposobnosti prepoznavanja emocija (p>0,05). U odnosu na tip stanovanja, statistički značajne razlike dobijene su samo u grupi ispitanika sa umerenom intelektualnom ometenošću na emociji straha (t (33)=-3,51; p=0,01), u korist ispitanika koji žive u institucionalnom smeštaju. Dužina boravka u instituciji pozitivno i umereno korelira sa sposobnošću prepoznavanja emocije ljutnje kod odraslih osoba sa intelektualnom ometenošću (r=0,46, p lt 0,05).