Psycholexical approach to adaptive behaviour

<p>The current study draws upon the psycholexical approach, which proposes that if a concept if important for our survival as a species it will be encoded and maintained within language (Corballis, 2009). The aim was to develop a lexicon of adaptive behaviour, or an exhaustive list of words that individuals utilise to describe functional behaviour in everyday life for children aged 2-7 years old. </p><p>The figure attached summarises the results of the study briefly. The study was informed by child development theory and existing adaptive behaviour assessment tools. </p><p>The words generated through the psycholexical approach underwent a frequency analysis and a thematic analysis. The thematic analysis grouped similar words together and an overall descriptor was assigned to capture the meaning, as demonstrated in Figure 1.</p><p><br></p><p>This research has been produced as a part of the requirements for the Monash University Doctor of Philosophy program.