Dr Julia Harries
Room 710, Hughes Building |
Area of Research
Disability.
Awards
Frank Dalziel Prize (Best PhD Thesis in Psychology, 2009).
Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) Scholarship.
Senior Appointments and Memberships
Member of the Disabilities Research Unit, School of Psychology, University of Adelaide.
Member of the Australian Society for Intellectual Disability (ASID).
Member of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD).
Psychology Research Interests
My research interests are in the area of assessment, training, and support provision for individuals with disabilities, particularly intellectual and associated developmental disabilities. I am a member of the Disabilities Research Unit (DRU) within the School of Psychology. Research projects currently being undertaken by the DRU include a collaborative research project with the Department for Families and Communities (DFC). The aim of this research is to refine a model for understanding and determining the support needs of individuals with a range of different disability types, combinations of disabilities, and levels of severity. It is envisaged that an accepted model for understanding and measuring support needs could be used as the rational basis for allocating resource funds in order to support individuals to achieve increased independence and quality of life. Research priorities include advancing the conceptualisation of the support need construct and refinement of approaches for measuring support needs. Additional and associated areas of research interest include:
- Evaluating the psychometric properties of support need instruments.
- Understanding the relationship between measures of adaptive behaviour and support needs.
- Assessing learning support for people with intellectual disabilities.
- Evaluating the effectiveness of video modelling techniques in developing the social skills and self protective behaviours of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
- Understanding the impact of developmental issues on support needs (i.e. planning for life stage transitions, age related changes in support needs).
Recent Key Publications
Harries, J., Guscia, R., Nettelbeck, T., & Kirby, N. (2009). Impact of additional disabilities on adaptive behaviour and support profiles for people with intellectual disabilities. A merican Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 114, 237-253.
Guscia, R., Eckberg, S., Harries, J., Kirby, N. (2006). Measurement of environmental constructs in disability assessment. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disability 3, 173-180.
Guscia, R., Harries, J., Kirby, N., Nettelbeck, T., & Taplin, J. (2006). Construct and criterion validities of the Service Need Assessment Profile. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31, 148-155.
Guscia, R., Harries, J., Kirby, N., Nettelbeck, T., & Taplin, J. (2006). Rater bias and the measurement of support. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31, 156-160.
Harries, J., Guscia, R., Kirby, N., Nettelbeck, T., & Taplin, J. (2005). Support needs and adaptive behaviour. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 110, 393-404.
