Oregonleatherboy Depersonalization Trance Animation & 4 Peer-reviewed Research
THE TREATMENT OF DEPERSONALIZATION*
PAUL SCHILDER
Consequences of ‘minimal’ group affiliations in children
Yarrow Dunham,
Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced
Andrew Scott Baron, and
University of British Columbia
Susan Carey
Department of Psychology, Harvard University
Abstract
Three experiments (total N = 140) tested the hypothesis that 5-year-old children’s membership in
randomly assigned ‘minimal’ groups would be sufficient to induce intergroup bias. Children were
randomly assigned to groups and engaged in tasks involving judgments of unfamiliar ingroup or
outgroup children. Despite an absence of information regarding the relative status of groups or any
competitive context, ingroup preferences were observed on explicit and implicit measures of
attitude and resource allocation (Experiment 1), behavioral attribution, and expectations of
reciprocity, with preferences persisting when groups were not described via a noun label
(Experiment 2). In addition, children systematically distorted incoming information by
preferentially encoding positive information about ingroup members (Experiment 3). Implications
for the developmental origins of intergroup bias are discussed.
Depersonalization Disorder: Disconnection of Cognitive
Evaluation from Autonomic Responses to Emotional Stimuli
Matthias Michal1*, Ansgar Koechel1
, Marco Canterino2
, Julia Adler1
, Iris Reiner1
, Gerhard Vossel3
,Manfred E. Beutel1
, Matthias Gamer4
1 Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany, 2 Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology,
University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany, 3 Institute of Psychology, Department of General & Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University,
Mainz, Germany, 4 Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
Abstract
Background: Patients with depersonalization disorder (DPD) typically complain about emotional detachment.
Previous studies found reduced autonomic responsiveness to emotional stimuli for DPD patients as compared to
patients with anxiety disorders. We aimed to investigate autonomic responsiveness to emotional auditory stimuli of
DPD patients as compared to patient controls. Furthermore, we examined the modulatory effect of mindful breathing
on these responses as well as on depersonalization intensity.
Methods: 22 DPD patients and 15 patient controls balanced for severity of depression and anxiety, age, sex and
education, were compared regarding 1) electrodermal and heart rate data during a resting period, and 2) autonomic
responses and cognitive appraisal of standardized acoustic affective stimuli in two conditions (normal listening and
mindful breathing).
Results: DPD patients rated the emotional sounds as significantly more neutral as compared to patient controls and
standardized norm ratings. At the same time, however, they responded more strongly to acoustic emotional stimuli
and their electrodermal response pattern was more modulated by valence and arousal as compared to patient
controls. Mindful breathing reduced severity of depersonalization in DPD patients and increased the arousal
modulation of electrodermal responses in the whole sample. Finally, DPD patients showed an increased
electrodermal lability in the rest period as compared to patient controls.
Conclusions: These findings demonstrated that the cognitive evaluation of emotional sounds in DPD patients is
disconnected from their autonomic responses to those emotional stimuli. The increased electrodermal lability in DPD
may reflect increased introversion and cognitive control of emotional impulses. The findings have important
psychotherapeutic implications.
Relevance of social categories, depersonalization and group
processes: Two field tests of self-categorization theory
ALBERTO VOCI*
University of Padova, Italy
European Journal of Social Psychology
Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 36, 73–90 (2006)
Published online in Wiley InterScience (https://www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.259
Abstract
Two field studies investigated whether, as predicted by self-categorization theory (Turner, 1987), the
relationship between comparative fit of an ingroup-outgroup categorization and group phenomena is
mediated by depersonalization of self-perception, and moderated by category accessibility. In the first
study participants were football fans, and in the second they were employees in an organization. In
each study, two experimental conditions were created, whereby the accessibility and salience of the
ingroup-outgroup categorization were varied. New measures of comparative fit and depersonalization
were developed, based on meta-contrast ratios. Outcome variables were ingroup bias (Studies 1 and
2), ingroup entitativity, organizational citizenship behaviours, job satisfaction and turnover intentions
(Study 2). Consistent with self-categorization theory, results showed (a) that comparative fit
determined ingroup bias and other criterion variables through the mediating process of depersona-
lization, and (b) that this process was active only when the category was highly accessible. The
moderational role of accessibility concerned the relationship between depersonalization and outcome
variables, not the link between fit and depersonalization. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
