Understanding Reciprocal Roles in Adults with Intellectual Disability
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Investigation into the Cognitive Abilities Associated with Understanding Reciprocal Roles in Adults with Intellectual Disabilities
IRAS ID
170929
Contact name
Jennifer Tibbles
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Surrey
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 22 days
Research summary
This study aims to identify which cognitive abilities individuals with severe to moderate Intellectual Disabilities need to understand the core concept of Cognitive Analytic Therapy. Cognitive Analytic Therapy is a psychological intervention, which uses the concept of “reciprocal roles” to explain people’s difficulties. “Reciprocal roles” is the term used for the way we respond to other people, or the “role” we adopt in response to the “role” the other person has adopted. Roles are reciprocal as they form pairs, including both a “doing” and a “done to” role (“top” and “bottom” roles respectively). They represent the way we learn to respond to other people, including how we feel about ourselves. For example, in response to someone acting in the top role of “Abusing” someone may adopt the bottom role of “Abused”. Identifying and understanding these roles are a fundamental step in learning to change our behavioural responses to situations as part of Cognitive Analytic Therapy.
People with moderate to severe Intellectual disabilities are people with a low IQ (approximately below 50) who had difficulties in communication and functional skills. These difficulties can make it more difficult for them to understand and benefit from psychological intervention. There is little research on what cognitive skills are required to understand reciprocal roles and therefore be able to take part in this therapy. This research aims to investigate which abilities are associated with understanding reciprocal roles by asking participants with intellectual disabilities to complete tasks measuring key cognitive skills (receptive vocabulary, non-verbal reasoning and Theory of Mind (the ability to represent the thoughts, beliefs and emotions of others)) and a task involving matching Top and Bottom reciprocal roles. This may contribute to our understanding of which psychotherapeutic interventions are appropriate for individuals with moderate to severe intellectual impairments.REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0243
Date of REC Opinion
16 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion