Abnormal Psychology

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Abnormal Psychology
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What IS personality?

• Write a definition of what YOU think personality
  means...

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What IS personality?

• Personality is a hypothetical construct!
• We can never observe one
• We can only infer personality from behaviour

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What IS personality?

• Personality is not a THING but has to do with
  how we interact with other people and generally
  deal with the world

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What IS personality?

• Baron Byrne (1991)
• Personality is
• the combination of those relatively enduring
  TRAITS which influence behaviour in a predictable
  way in a variety of situations...

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Trait theories of personality..

• EYSENK (1953)
• The INTROVERT personality
• A typical introvert is quiet, retiring,
  introspective, fond of books rather than of
  people, reserved distant...

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Trait theories of personality..

• EYSENK (1953)
• The EXTROVERT personality
• A typical extrovert is sociable, likes parties,
  has many friends, needs people to talk to, craves
  excitement, and likes change
• Ref R Gross (2 ED) pp 879 - (personality)

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The BIOLOGICAL basis for personality

• EYSENCK.. Individual differences in nervous
  systems
• Extroverts have STRONG nervous systems which tend
  to DAMP down incoming sensory data - thus they
  are UNDER AROUSED and need to arouse themselves
  with activity
• Introverts have sensitive nervous systems which
  amplify incoming sensory data, thus they need to
  reduce sensory input...

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Personality traits...

• Does the EYSENCK theory of a biological basis for
  personality predict
• STABLE personality traits?
• VARIABLE personality traits?
• NB This is a reductionist theory of personality

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Freud s theory of personality

• The tripartite structure of personality
• The ID, EGO SUPEREGO

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The THREE faces of EVE

• A case of
• multiple personality disorder
• Thigpen Cleckley (1954)

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The THREE faces of EVE

• This is a case study
• and
• a record of a therapeutic process

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The THREE faces of EVE

• Who were Thigpen Cleckley?
• They were psychiatrists
• (medically qualified)
• Their paper was published in the Journal of
  abnormal social psychology (1954)

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The THREE faces of EVE

• Who was EVE?
• A 25 year old woman who was referred because of
  her SEVERE AND BLINDING HEADACHES

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The THREE faces of EVE

• What was EVE WHITE like?
• IQ score 110
• memory - excellent
• repressive personality
• conservative, shy, dutiful
• loving wife and mother

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The THREE faces of EVE

• In the initial interviews (EVE WHITE)
• EVE complained of (symptoms)
• Blinding Headaches
• Blackouts
• Marital Problems
• Personal problems

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The THREE faces of EVE

• THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
• EVE WHITE
• EVE showed amnesia for a recent trip and was
  HYPNOTISED in order to restore her memory

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The THREE faces of EVE

• THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
• FIRST SIGN OF SOMETHING ODD!
• A letter arrived which was written in two kinds
  of handwriting!

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The THREE faces of EVE

• What did EVE say about the letter?
• She denied writing it, though she did say she had
  begun a letter which she had not finished

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The THREE faces of EVE

• What happened then?
• Eve became distressed and asked
• whether hearing voices in her head meant she
  was insane
• she said that on several occasions she had heard
  a voice in her head speaking to her

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The THREE faces of EVE

• This was a critical interview
• Several times she put her hands to her head as if
  in pain
• AND THEN...

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The THREE faces of EVE

• THE TRANSFORMATION!
• EVE WHITE CHANGED ...
• BECAME EVE BLACK!

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The THREE faces of EVE

• THE TRANSFORMATION!
• The therapist noted
• A quick reckless smileHI DOC
• Eve White now displayed
• a childishly daredevil air
• an erotic glance
• even her sitting posture changed
• Hi Doc .
• EVE WHITE CHANGED ...
• BECAME EVE BLACK!

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The THREE faces of EVE

• What was EVE BLACK like?
• IQ score 104
• memory - poor
• regressive personality
• childish, extrovert, mischievous
• denied being a wife mother

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The THREE faces of EVE

• The therapy lasted 14 months and 100 hours of
  interviews
• Eve Black would sometimes appear but could only
  be CALLED OUT under hypnosis

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The THREE faces of EVE

• Eve White was not aware of Eve Black
• but
• Eve Black was aware of Eve White
• Eve Black had existed since childhood
• Eve Black - would emerge, would behave badly and
  then retreat and let Eve White take the
  blame(parents verified incidents)

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The THREE faces of EVE

• How T C described Eve Black
• childish, irresponsible shallow
• seeking pleasure excitement
• denied marriage to EWs husband
• whom she despised
• denied relationship with EWs daughter

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The THREE faces of EVE

• Well YOU may ask
• Did her family not notice ANYTHING odd
• When they observed EB they put her harshness
  aggression down to occasional temper tantrums in
  a normally gentle woman

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How did the therapists measure the variables of
personality?

• Personality tests (psychometric tests)
• Rorschach ink blot tests
• EW repressive (FREUD)
• EB regressive (FREUD)
• Electroencephalograms
• (record brain activity)

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As treatment progressed

• EW headaches recurred got worse
• Blackouts increased
• Both EW EB denied awareness in these blackouts
• EW state of mind deteriorated
• (confinement was considered)
• THEN WHAT HAPPENED!!

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Another personality appears!

• A THIRD personality
• who called herself JANE
• JANE had full awareness of EW and EB
• Neither EW nor EB were aware of JANE

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What did Thigpen Cleckley do?

• All THREE personalities
• tested by electroencephalogram
• clear differences were recorded
• therapy continued
• to treat all THREE women in the ONE body

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The decision of Thigpen Cleckley

• Jane seemed to be the person most likely to bring
  a solution to the troubled mind
• as
• She was increasingly dominant over the other
  personalities

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The moral dilemma(ethics)

• They noted the moral problem re
• the problem of killing one or more of the
  personalities

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Other explanations?

• Was the woman a very good actress
• (were T C conned?)
• Was the woman psychotic (schizophrenic?)
• Could the hypnotism have caused the multiple
  personality effect?

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What did T C conclude?

• They did wonder whether they had become so
  involved that they lost their sense of judgement
  and over dramatised the case
• They remain convinced that they witnessed a case
  of multiple personality
• Note A film was made!

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Another strange case

• The multiple personalities of
• SYBIL
• (SCHREIBER 1973)

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Back to the question?

• What do we mean by personality?
• Is personality a stable trait?
• What do we mean by
• not like himself/herself
• s/hes a changed person
• acting out of character
• Teams of 4 student experimenters
• (two male / two female)
• Male actors (victim and model)
• Females were observers

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The Three faces of Eve - postscript

• In 1975 a woman came forward and said SHE was EVE
  White et al
• said she had experienced many other personalities
  both before therapy and since (22 in all)
• that the fragmentation of her personality had
  been to protect herself from unbearable
  experiences

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Ethical problems

• Killing one/more of the personalities
• who should decide this?

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Ethical problems

• Making a film for profit
• (who benefits what about confidentiality)

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Ethical problems

• During the treatment
• Eve White got worse

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Ethical problems

• Who gives informed consent for the treatment
  procedures?

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Ethical problems

• Which personality do you think
• T C approved of most?
• Might there be a
• culture gender bias issue here?

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Questions you should be ready to answer

• What were the main differences between Eve White
  and Eve Black?
• What is the difference between multiple
  personality disorder schizophrenia?
• What problems with the case study method does
  this study highlight?
• Describe the therapists involvement with their
  patient

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A question to think about

• If Eysencks theory of biological basis for
  personality is CORRECT
• Could Eve have had multiple personalities?

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The three faces of Eve

• A case of multiple personality
• (nowadays this is called)
• DID
• Disassociative Identity Disorder

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Multiple Personality Disorder

• Frequency distribution
• 14 cases between 1944 - 1969
• 50 cases in the 1970s ! (6 by Sybils therapist)
• even more in the 1980s (an epidemic)
• the rise fall correlates with the impact of
  Freuds psychoanalytic theory
• MOSTLY in the USA

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Multiple Personality Disorder

• There is NO universally accepted definition even
  among psychiatrists in the USA

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The three faces of Eve

• Read this up in R Gross if you have time!
• Read up about HYPNOTISM
• An altered state of consciousness?
• or
• Demand characteristics?

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(No Transcript)
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Thigpen Cleckley

• The three faces of Eve
• The END