Criminology Research Council grant ; (16/78)
This report is divided into two parts; Part I is a comparative study of the behaviour of normal and retarded subjects in temptation to steal situations and Part II is a study of two procedures designed to facilitate the development of resistance to temptation behaviour.
In Part I, the study compared the responses of 48 retarded subjects to an older and younger group of 48 normal subjects (matched for sex, chronological age and mental age, respectively) in a series of eight hypothetical temptation to steal dilemmas, designed by Jackson.
Utilising a moral judgement component in the same dilemmas it was possible to make both inter and intra group comparisons. The results indicated that both the younger and the older normal subjects resisted significantly more often than the retarded subjects on what is described as the 'did do' measure of the test. Similarly both groups of normal subjects generated significantly more legitimate acquisition responses than the retarded, with the older normal subjects using such responses significantly more often than the younger normal subjects. Using the 'should do' measure, inter-group comparisons yielded no significant differences between any of the groups. A further comparison indicated significant differences between what all groups of subjects said they 'should do' compared to what they 'did do'. It was found that normal subjects were significantly more reflective than retarded subjects. In a series of measures relating to the perception of parental punishment, it was found that stealing was related to punishment behaviour by parents. In a test of person variables relating to 'ability to accept blame', 'ability to decide right from wrong', a sex difference was noted which indicated that retarded females who stole more had personal difficulties.
In Part II, the study concerned a comparison of two treatment programs designed to facilitate resistance to temptation behaviour in educable mentally retarded children. The treatment derived its main aspects and content from Jackson's (1968) model of cognitive processing in w hypothetical temptation to steal situations. The content and format of the treatment owed much to a study done by Haines, Jackson and Davidson with normal children in 1979.
This study, which was based on a population pool of 108 such children, employed a four group design with one group receiving a direct instruction program. A second group, serving as an alternative treatment condition received a general instruction procedure, whilst a third group (no treatment control) experienced no specific intervention. The fourth post-only control group was employed to test for sensitisation of the testing effects.
It was hypothesised that direct instruction would be more effective than general instruction, indeed an analysis of the data indicated that the direct instruction group used resistance responses significantly more than the general instruction group and no treatment control groups on the behavioural measure of the test. Another important result indicated that the direct instruction group was significantly more reflective than the other groups.
The main implication of the study is that a cognitively orientated procedure may be regarded as an effective strategy for the prevention and treatment of mentally retarded children's stealing behaviour.