The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two kinds of reinforcements, tangible reinforcements and social reinforcements, on the academic achievement of eighth-grade female students with intellectual disabilities in the science subject. The study was an experimental method by pretest, with a control group. The participants of the study comprised 45 female students with intellectual disabilities from three different middle schools in the province of Tehran. The multistage cluster method was chosen to determine the sample. The Wechsler intelligence test for matching the groups in terms of IQ and teacher-applied tests were used for all students to measure the progress of students in science. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that (a) there was a significant difference in the academic achievement scores of the groups after applying the intervention and (b) the mean difference in achievement scores for the tangible reinforcements group was significantly higher than the social reinforcement group and the control group. Also the mean scores for the social reinforcement group were significantly higher than the control group.
Objective Most children and adults with cerebral palsy do not have appropriate social competency and personality traits, which in turn leads to psychological problems in their life and negatively affects their interactions. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the effectiveness of mental immunization program training on social competency and personality traits of individuals with cerebral palsy in Tehran city. Materials & MethodsThe present research had a semi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design and control group. The study population included adolescents with cerebral palsy in the age group of 12-16 years in the academic year 2015-2016. Subjects were selected with the help of the convenient sampling method. In this study, 34 adolescents with cerebral palsy participated. They belonged to the middle socioeconomical class. The subjects were randomly divided into experimental and control group, each of which consisted of 17 adolescents. The experimental group received psychological immunization program training across 10 sessions (45 minutes for per session; twice a week) while control group did not receive any training. The instruments of present research were social competency questionnaire of Felner, Lease and Philips and big five factor personality inventory (NEO-FFI) of Costa and McCrae. The obtained data were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) test with the 21st version of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Results The normality of variables and contingency of variance and covariance assumptions were tested. The Kolmogorov Smirnov test showed that all variables were normal (P>0.05). The Box test confirmed contingency of variance-covariance assumption (P=0.28). Therefore, assumptions of MANCOVA test were confirmed and were used the MANCOVA test for analysis of data. The findings of this research showed that there was a significant increase in social competency mean scores of experimental group post intervention in comparison with control group (P<0.001). Also, personality traits mean scores of experimental group was significantly in neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness subscales (P<0.05). In other words, mental immunization program training had a significant effect on these subscales but not on openness (P>0.05). Conclusion The results of the present research indicated a significant increase in social competency in adolescents with cerebral palsy. Also, desirable changes were found to be developed in the personality traits of these adolescents. In other words, there was a decreased level of neuroticism and significant increase in positive traits such as extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The overall results of the present research indicated that mental immunization program training led to improvement in social competency and personality traits of individuals with cerebral palsy. Therefore, paying attention to the mental immunization program training is essential...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.