Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2012
Abstract
Background—Self-injuring acts are among the most dramatic behaviours exhibited by human beings. There is no known single cause and there is no universally agreed upon treatment. Sophisticated sequential and temporal analysis of behaviour has provided alternative descriptions of self-injury that provide new insights into its initiation and maintenance.
Method—Forty hours of observations for each of 32 participants were collected in a contiguous two-week period. Twenty categories of behavioural and environmental events were recorded electronically that captured the precise time each observation occurred. Temporal behavioural/ environmental patterns associated with self-injurious events were revealed with a method (tpatterns; THEME) for detecting non-linear, real-time patterns.
Results—Results indicated that acts of self-injury contributed both to more patterns and to more complex patterns. Moreover, self-injury left its imprint on the organization of behaviour even when counts of self-injury were expelled from the continuous record.
Conclusions—Behaviour of participants was organized in a more diverse array of patterns with SIB was present. Self-injuring acts may function as singular points, increasing coherence within self-organizing patterns of behaviour.
Recommended Citation
Sandman, Curt A., et al. (2012). "The role of self‐injury in the organisation of behaviour." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 56(5), 516-526. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01552.x
Copyright
© 2012 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research / © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Included in
Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Biological Psychology Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Other Psychology Commons
Comments
This is the accepted version of the following article:
Sandman, Curt A., et al. "The role of self‐injury in the organisation of behaviour." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 56.5 (2012): 516-526.
which has been published in final form at DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01552.x.