Application of social skills training in a group of institutionalized aggressive elderly subjects

A social skills training program consisting of instructions, modeling, role playing, and feedback was carried out with a group of 6 verbally aggressive institutionalized elderly patients. Dependent measures included confirmed incidents of verbal aggressive behavior monitored across an ABAB design with a 5-month follow-up period. Results indicated that verbally aggressive behavior can be significantly decreased in a group-training setting and subsequently generalized to ward and other socialized behavior. Ancillary aspects of the study include the role of social reinforcement, participant modeling, and staff attitude, perception, and motivation. Implications for future research are discussed.