Abstract
This study utilized a video-taped presentation of the Test of Emotional Perception (Negri-Shoultz. & Donnellan, 1989) to evaluate the social competency skills of emotion recognition, affective perspective-taking, and empathy expression of institutionalized adults with mild or moderate mental retardation. Analyses of resultant data compared the performance of individuals identified as having chronic interpersonal behavior problems with peers who presented no clinical sign of behavior disorders. Additionally, the obtained data were compared with outcomes predicted by staff members. Results suggest that the responses of persons with moderate mental retardation to the tasks of discriminating emotions and expressing empathy was poor in contrast to those with mild retardation. Furthermore, individuals with mild mental retardation and no chronic challenging behaviors scored significantly better than individuals with mild mental retardation and chronic challenging behaviors of all interpersonal nature. There was, however, no significant difference between the scores of individuals with moderate levels of retardation with and without challenging behavior. Results related to staff estimates showed continual overestimation of participant skills. These results and their implications for practice are discussed.
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