Exploring Carers' Judgements of Responsibility and Control in Response to the Challenging Behaviour of People with Intellectual Disabilities

This study examines Weiner's recent cognitive emotional model which makes a distinction between judgements of control and responsibility and emphasizes the moderation of control by 'mitigating' factors.

In response to four vignettes describing two conditions of control (high or low) and mitigating factors (present or absent), questionnaires rating judgements of responsibility and emotional responses (anger and sympathy) were completed by 52 care staff.

Analysis of the data for sympathy demonstrated that attributions of control were moderated by communication ability and that the effect of control upon sympathy was mediated by the judgement of responsibility.

The data offer tentative support Weiner's account of the mitigation of control attributions in making responsibility judgements and their subsequent effects on emotional responses. Implications for research and clinical work are discussed.