1. Attitudes & Attributions
Avon & Wiltshire PBS Network
Attitudes & Attributions

2. Defining and labelling behaviour
CB is defined by:
Social context
Cultural context
Assumptions & attributions
Values
Previous experience

3. Defining and labelling behaviour
Behaviours are not intrinsically challenging
CB’s are always linked to a social and cultural context
Defining or labelling behaviours as CB is an arbitrary process

4. Defining challenging behaviour
What constitutes challenging is always dependent on the social position of the person who is defining or labelling the behaviour
Defining or labelling a behaviour as challenging requires a position of relative power in relation to the person whose behaviour is being described

5. attributions?
A way in which we make sense of behaviour – that of ourselves and other peoples
Internal attributions (reason is located within the person)
External attributions (reason is located outside of the person)
Bias towards internal attributions

6. Relationship between attributions & behaviours
Service-user behaviour
Attribution
Emotional response
Staff behaviour
Impact on environment

7. attitudes? An enduring positive or negative feeling about: - situation
- object
- person
We cannot see an attitude but we can ‘observe’ it.
Attitudes may be ‘observed’ by:
- cognitive responses
- affective responses
- behavioural responses

8. Attitudes
(Taken from Hewstone et al, 1996)

9. Activity 1
Think of a situation where carers responses to an incident of CB included:
Avoidance
Disgust
Anger
Rejection
Negative approaches

10. Activity 2
Think of a situation where carers responses to an incident of CB included:
Sympathy
Empathy
Concern
Understanding
Helping behaviour

11. Factors which increase likelihood of negative attributions
Lack of knowledge of salient factors:
Abuse
Autism
Temporal lobe epilepsy
Fragile X
Mental illness
Personality disorder

12. Knowledge, attributions & attitudes
Support
Behaviour
Attributions
Attitudes

13. Other factors which increase likelihood of negative attributions (1)
Stress
Seemingly intractable nature of CB
Formal/natural carers
Impact on other service users
Individual vulnerability points – the challenges that specifically upset individuals

14. Other factors which increase likelihood of negative attributions (2)
Low morale – lack of positive intent/ feeling cannot influence things/ disempowerment
Lack of training in self control
 Lack of reward – putting more in than getting back
Temperament of recruited staff
Poorly articulated values

15. Other factors which increase likelihood of negative attributions (3)
Lack of proper PBS plan – failure to understand functions and triggers for behaviour
Poor role models from senior staff
Limited opportunities for reflection/ debriefing

16. Negative Attributions about staff behaviour
Personality
Competence
Trustworthiness
Reliability
Self-attributions

17. What can you do to address negative attributions?
Identifying all relevant factors in histories (increased likelihood of poor mental health abuse, complicating conditions)
Education specific to the individual
Involving support staff in formulating PBS plans including charts and discussions
Establishing clear knowledge of triggers and functions

18. What can you do to address negative attributions?
Post incident support – emotional and physical/ critical incident review
Recruitment of people with appropriate temperament – refer to research; job specs, su involvement
Teaching stress management techniques – as a response to difficult situations and for general proactive purposes.
Positive culture and expectation of success and development but framed in the context for a need for long term focus