Aggressive Behavior Analysis

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In the research article, “Factors Associated With Aggressive Behavior Among Nursing Home Residents With Dementia” the researchers studied the occurrence of negative behaviors using cognitive status and personality characteristics, as well as sets of proximal factors, such as characteristics of physical and social environments (Whall et al., 2008). They worked with a Need-Driven Dementia Compromised Behavior Model. This model examines a patient’s health status, psychosocial status and cognitive ability as well as one’s physiological, and psychological needs and one’s physical and social environments. After examining all of these factors, they see how they lead to aggressive behavior, wandering, and problematic vocalization (Whall et al., 2008). …show more content…
This study took place in the United Kingdom with 25 nurses and 26 psychologists from four regions of the United Kingdom (Todd & Watts, 2005). The participants were interviewed to obtain their accounts of challenging behaviors they had witnessed. Analysis used the Leeds Attributional Coding System, which codes one’s written or spoken material into statistical data (Todd & Watts, 2005). The participant’s accounts of challenging behavior were questioned and the participants were encouraged to think about why they thought the negative behavior had occurred and what they thought could be done to reduce it. Staff’s willingness to help a patient, optimism toward a patient, emotional responses, burnout and demographics were analyzed (Todd & Watts, 2005). It was found that optimism and sympathy were generally associated with a staff member’s willingness to help a dementia patient. With optimism and sympathy a dementia patient is less likely to be distressed, and act out negatively (Todd & Watts, 2005). Based off of this research, it is known that the importance of preventing staff burn out, and a staff member being optimistic and sympathetic towards a dementia patient, all help the staff-patient relationship. With a good relationship a dementia patient will have a higher quality of life and be less likely to be …show more content…
This research design was a two-group randomized trial. There were two hundred seventy- two caregivers and people with dementia that participated in this study (Gitlin, et al., 2010). There were up to 11 home and telephone contacts over 16 weeks by health professionals who identified potential triggers of patient behaviors, including communicating and environmental factors and patient undiagnosed medical conditions (by obtaining blood and urine samples) and trained caregivers in strategies to modify triggers and reduce their upset (Gitlin, et al., 2010). Between 16 and 24 weeks, three telephone contacts reinforced strategy use. It was found that caregivers benefited from reinforcement of positive communication strategies. When they positively communicated to their loved ones who had dementia, the dementia patient felt more respected and were less likely to react negatively to their caregivers (Gitlin, et al., 2010). Training caregivers on how to be patient and how to prevent caregiver burnout also reduced psychological distress on the dementia patient themselves, because their caregiver was less