Error types in interpretation of primary emotions in adults with intellectual disabilities and dual diagnosis

Abstract

Bearing in mind that the wrong identification and interpretation of emotional expressions are associated with problems in social behavior, the aim of this study is to determine the most common errors that occur in identifying the primary emotions in communication in adults with intellectual disabilities and dual diagnoses. The sample consisted of 120 subjects of both genders, aged between 20 and 56 years (AS = 31.82, SD = 8.70). The entire sample was divided into two subsamples, those with intellectual disabilities (N = 60) and those with dual diagnoses (N = 60). For assessing the ability to understand primary emotions in communication we have used the scale of Understanding emotions in communication from The Assessment Battery for Communication - AbaCo (Sacco et al., 2008). The obtained results show that the lowest presentation of errors in both groups of respondents occurred on the task of assessing the ability to recognize the emotions of anger. For all respondents, the weakest achievements were recorded in the emotion of fear. A similar frequency of errors for both groups of respondents are observed in the emotions of happiness, sadness and fear, while the emotion of anger sees a slightly different sequence of the most common substitutions.

Imajući u vidu da se pogrešno prepoznavanje i tumačenje emocionalnih izraza dovodi u vezu sa problemima u socijalnom ponašanju, cilj ovog rada je utvrđivanje najzastupljenijih grešaka koje se javljaju pri prepoznavanju primarnih emocija u komunikaciji kod odraslih osoba sa intelektualnom ometenošću i dualnim dijagnozama. Uzorkom je obuhvaćeno 120 ispitanika, oba pola, starosti između 20 i 56 godina (AS=31,82, SD=8,70). Celokupan uzorak je podeljen na dva poduzorka, ispitanike sa intelektualnom ometenošću (N=60) i ispitanike sa dualnim dijagnozama (N=60). Za procenu sposobnosti razumevanja primarnih 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 se najmanja zastupljenost grešaka u obe grupe ispitanika beleži na zadacima za procenu sposobnosti prepoznavanja emocije ljutnje. Za sve ispitanike najslabija postignuća zabeležena su na emociji straha. Slična frekvencija grešaka za obe grupe ispitanika uočava se na emocijama sreće, tuge i straha, dok se u emociji ljutnje uočava nešto drugačiji redosled najzastupljenijih supstitucija.