Chapter 6 (Exam 2) Flashcards
dissociative disorders
- part of the person’s memory seems to be dissociated/separated from the rest
- triggered by traumatic events
twin studies for dissociative amnesia, dissociative amnesia with fugue, and DID
- variability is 50-55% for nonshared environmental factors (traumatic/stressful)
- 45-50% variability in dissociative symptoms (genetics)
types of dissociative disorders
- dissociative amnesia
- dissociative amnesia with fugue
- DID (dissociative identity disorder)
- depersonalization-derealization disorder
dissociative amnesia
- unable to recall important information about their lives
- loss of memory is more extensive than normal forgetting
- episode of amnesia is directly triggered by a specific upsetting event
dissociative amnesia (dx checklist), prevalence rate
prevalence rate: 1.8%
types of dissociative amnesia
MOST COMMON - LEAST COMMON
localized
selective
generalized
continuous
LOCALIZED dissociative amnesia
most common
loss of all memory of events occurring within a limited period
SELECTIVE dissociative amnesia
loss of memory for some, but not all, events occurring within a period
GENERALIZED dissociative amnesia
loss of memory beginning with an event, but extending back in time (may lose sense of identity or fail to recognize family and friends)
CONTINUOUS dissociative amnesia
least common
forgetting continues into the future
dissociative amnesia with fugue
- forget their identities and details of their past AND flee to a different location
- fugue can last from hours/days to starting a whole new life
- fugues tend to end abruptly
dissociative amnesia with fugue (prevalence rate)
2%
dissociative identity disorder (DID)
- a person develops two or more personalities (subpersonalities), each with a unique set of memories, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors
- at any time, one subpersonality dominates the person’s functioning
- usually one of the subpersonalities (called the host) appears more often than others
- transition from one to the other (switching) is sudden and triggered by stress
- symptoms generally begin in childhood after episodes of abuse
- can be diagnosed at any age
for DID, women receive the diagnoses ___ times as often as men
three times as often
how do subpersonalities interact (DID)?
- mutually amnesic relationships
- mutually cognizant patterns
- one-way amnesic relationships (MOST COMMON)
one-way amnesic relationships (DID)
how do subpersonalities interact (DID)?
- most common
some personalities are aware of others, but the awareness is not mutual (those who are aware (co-conscious subpersonalities) are quiet observers)
mutually amnesic relationships (DID)
how do subpersonalities interact (DID)?
subpersonalities have no awareness of one another
mutually cognizant patterns (DID)
how do subpersonalities interact (DID)?
each subpersonality is aware of the rest
how many subpersonalities do people usually have?
avg- 5 to 10
women- 15
men- 8
how do subpersonalities differ (DID)?
-dramatically different characteristics
- identifying features
- abilities and preferences
- physiological responses
DID (dx checklist and prevalence rate)
prevalence rate: 1.5%
what causes dissociative disorders?
repression
theoretical explanations
psychodynamic view
most support is drawn from case histories, which report brutal ACEs in 70% of cases but…
- some individuals did not have traumatic experiences
- why might only a small fraction of abused children develop these disorders?
theoretical explanations
state-dependent learning
- if people learn something in a particular state of mind, they are likely to remember it best when in the same condition (this link between STATE and RECALL is state-dependent learning)
- this model is demonstrated with substances and mood, may be linked to arousal levels
- people prone to dissociative disorders may have state-to-memory links that are UNUSUALLY RIGID AND NARROW (each thought, memory, and skill is tied exclusively to a particular state of arousal, so they recall a given event ONLY when they experience an arousal state nearly identical to the original state when memory was acquired)
