Dissociative Identity Disorder

• "Meet" a person with DID
• Interpersonality amnesia in people with DID
• Reading the Research

• DID (previously MPD = Multiple Personality Disorder)

• A type of Dissociative Disorder

• Experience separated from conscious awareness

• Why a mental disorder?

• Clinically significant distress and/or impaired functioning

• Internal source

• Manifested involuntarily

• DID "personalities" generally have no recollection of each other's experiences.

• BUT, some memory tasks demonstrate shared memory.

• Leads to questions about the organization of memory (review pp. 343-347 in Gray)

Reading the Research:
Eich, Macaulay, Loewenstein, & Dihle (1997).

• Intriguing method

• Fascinating results

• Minimal "big picture"

• Diagnosis, treatment of DID?

• Understand "normal" memory?

• Review research designs, methods of data collection

• Consider the research in a larger context

• "Important" discussion questions:

• Is this research important?

• Are the measures appropriate for addressing the research question?

• Can the results be generalized beyond the context of the study?

• Are the conclusions important?