Who Engages with Supernatural Entities? An Investigation of Personality and Cognitive Style Predictors

We tested preregistered hypotheses (a) examining the structure of supernatural beliefs and perceived experiences and (b) predicting supernatural engagement from the Big Five and cognitive styles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of self-report data in the U.S. undergraduates (Study 1: n = 1,401; Study 2: n = 1,939) showed that beliefs and perceived experiences were characterized by two factors. Positive and Negative Agents factors related strongly to religious belief salience and were defined by God, the devil, angels, demons, and ghosts/spirits, whereas Forces and Spirits factors were unrelated to religious belief salience and were defined by fate/destiny, karma, and ghosts/spirits. Extraversion, conscientiousness, experiential processing, schizotypy, and dissociative tendencies related positively to supernatural engagement. With some nuances, agreeableness, neuroticism, and need for closure were positive predictors, whereas skepticism and analytical-rational processing were negative predictors. Openness and intellectual humility did not relate positively to supernatural engagement, contradicting expectations. Because the literature on individual differences predictors of supernatural engagement is not well integrated, these results may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this topic.

Episodic Autobiographical Memory Impairment and Differences in Pronoun Use: Study of Self-Awareness in Functional Amnesia and Transient Global Amnesia

The subjective experience associated to memory processing is the core of the definition of episodic autobiographical memory (EAM). However, while it is widely known that amnesia affects the content of memories, few studies focused on the consequences of an impairment of EAM on the subjective self, also called the I-self. In the present study, we explored the I-self in two puzzling disorders that affect EAM: functional amnesia, which has an impact on autobiographical memory, and transient global amnesia (TGA), which only affects episodic memory. I-self was assessed through an original measure of self-integration in autobiographical narratives, namely the use of general or personal pronouns. Results showed that patients with functional amnesia tended to use general pronouns, whereas patients with TGA preferentially used the first person. The link between I-self and depersonalization-derealisation tendencies was also explored, showing dissociative tendencies in patients with functional amnesia but not in patients with TGA. We discuss these results from a combined neuropsychological and psychopathological perspective, with a view to proposing an explanatory model of the links between self-awareness and the episodic component of autobiographical memory.

MEDIATING ROLE OF DISSOCIATION SYMPTOMS BETWEEN ADOLESCENT COMPULSIVE INTERNET USE ACROSS TIME

The aim of this study was to examine adolescent compulsive internet use (CIU) across a one-year period, to examine associations with symptoms of depression, anxiety and dissociation, as well as to analyze the potential mediating effect of dissociation symptoms. Previous studies have indicated that dissociation might serve as a coping strategy and/or as a consequence of problematic internet use. Participating in the study were 80 adolescents (39 girls and 41 boys), ages from 12 to 18 (mean age 14.90 years) at the time of the first measurement. At Time 1 and one year later at Time 2 measurement points the participants completed the Trauma Symptom Checklist (Briere, 1995) and items from the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (Meerkert, VanDen Eijnden, Vermulst, & Garretsen, 2009). Correlation analyses showed associations between CIU and the adolescents’ ratings of anxiety, depression and dissociation at Time 1 and Time 2. Mediation analysis indicated partial mediation of dissociation symptoms between CIU at Time 1 and Time 2. A comparison of these relationships across time provides opportunity to discuss possible directions of causality and implications of bidirectionality between dissociative tendencies and adolescent prolonged, compulsive internet use.

Anomalous experiences are more prevalent among highly suggestible individuals who are also highly dissociative

Introduction: Predictive coding models propose that high hypnotic suggestibility confers a predisposition to hallucinate due to an elevated propensity to weight perceptual beliefs (priors) over sensory evidence. Multiple lines of research corroborate this prediction and demonstrate a link between hypnotic suggestibility and proneness to anomalous perceptual states. However, such effects might be moderated by dissociative tendencies, which seem to account for heterogeneity in high hypnotic suggestibility. We tested the prediction that the prevalence of anomalous experiences would be greater among highly suggestible individuals who are also highly dissociative.Methods: We compared high and low dissociative highly suggestible participants and low suggestible controls on multiple psychometric measures of anomalous experiences. Results: High dissociative highly suggestible participants reliably reported greater anomalous experiences than low dissociative highly suggestible participants and low suggestible controls, who did not significantly differ from each other. Conclusions: These results suggest a greater predisposition to experience anomalous perceptual states among high dissociative highly suggestible individuals.

The interactive effects of child maltreatment and the FK506 binding protein 5 gene (FKBP5) on dissociative symptoms in adolescence

The FK506 binding protein 5 gene (FKBP5) has been associated with susceptibility to pathogenic effects of childhood trauma including dissociative symptoms. This study examines the impact of maltreatment on dissociative tendencies in adolescence as moderated by theFKBP5gene. Dissociative symptoms and variation withinFKBP5were assessed in a high-risk, low socioeconomic status community sample of 279 maltreated and 171 nonmaltreated adolescents. Following the assignment of haplotypes across four single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs3800373, rs9296158, rs1360780, and rs9470080), individuals with one or more copies of the CATT haplotype (N= 230) were grouped together and compared to individuals with zero copies of this haplotype (N= 185). Analyses of covariance were conducted to test hypotheses regarding the effects of developmental timing and the chronicity of maltreatment and the CATT haplotype. We found a significant interactive effect of timing/chronicity of maltreatment and the CATT haplotype on dissociative symptoms. Among adolescents who had no copies of the CATT haplotype, dissociative symptoms were higher for chronically maltreated adolescents who had an infancy onset compared to those who were not maltreated or whose maltreatment experience was either relatively less chronic or not started in infancy. The groups did not differ significantly among subjects who carry one or more copies of the CATT haplotype.