intro.psych (Psyco 105) Discussion

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Are the conclusions important?

intro.psych (Psyco 105) Discussion: Group 1 Discussion Group: Reading the Research-DID: Are the conclusions important?

By Admin on Thursday, November 12, 1998 - 10:43 am:

Tie your discussion together here; use your discussion of previous questions to argure whether or not the conclusions are important.

This discussion is for marks.

Back to the Discussion Section

By Jep on Sunday, November 22, 1998 - 10:11 pm:

I think all conclusions are important, if they are correct with the study, and results. The conclusions would not be important if the research is not important and have nothing to with the real question at hand.

By Ivanka on Monday, November 23, 1998 - 10:36 am:

I agree that conclusions from research are important. It seems that the sample size is enough to give us some indication of how DID memory works although we cannot rely heavily on 9-7 subjects. This research can be a stepping stone in understanding the topic at hand but I would not use it as definate conclusion to understanding memory.

I found the paper a little hard to understand and it was difficult to picture all of the excercises that occured.

By Jep on Monday, November 23, 1998 - 12:02 pm:

I think the sample size is small and it seemed to me that they only chose people with DID that control two or more of their personalities to come out when they want. This being so, the illness may be different from someone who had no control over the personalities and when they came out. I think it would have been more beneficial to include someone who couldn't control it, even though it may take longer, just to compair notes and see what the outcome was.

By Ivanka on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 08:27 pm:

That's interesting! I don't know if it would be possible to do research on people who could not switch personalities just because how would you know for sure that they have switched. I saw Dianne Downs (who claimed to be schizophrenic and killed her children) on Oprah quite a long time ago and after the interview, Oprah said that she had changed personalities during the show and I could not tell at all. Some personality changes might be much more noticable than others. Could you tell when the person (people?) in the video switched?

I also wonder what would make one person able to switch and another not. The conclusions might be very different for people who cannot switch at will. I wonder what the percentage of people who can to people who cannot switch is. To my understanding, this illness is not quite understood yet (if ever) but it makes sense that the brain would shut off certain components when switching personalities in order to protect the person who is facing danger or anxiety at the moment. I can be compared to going unconscious in a way. Your brain just decides that it cannot handle the present situation or the body is in too much shock so certain parts of the brain become "resered" for certain personalities in order for the person to be able to remain functioning. I really don't know if I understand the illness and the research but it seems that the research could be useful when explored in conjunction with other research to dig further into these kinds of ideas

By Jep on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 10:43 pm:

It was clear with some of the changes from personalities in the video, although some were not as clear, I guess it would make a difference how different the personalities were that were interchanging to tell what the difference was. They said that sometimes just simple gestures show that the personality has changed, but I think you would have to have alot of experience with the individual to know what that gesture would be.

I never thought of it before but comparing it to going unconscious (in my mind) makes sense except the difference is that another personality takes place. I wonder what the difference would be that would make one idividual passout compared to someone coming up with other personalities to "take care of things".

By Ivanka on Wednesday, November 25, 1998 - 11:12 am:

I guess the brain does not shut off completely but instead just uses different parts of stored memory. Not sure!

It is interesting to me that there was only one woman subject. I wonder if the results would be different when comparing a group of women to a group of men. And if there is a distinct difference that would mean that this research is not as valid.

I think this research could be used in conjunction with further testing to try to understand why then, do some personalities know eachother and even do things like give eachother advice. What types of memory have to be shared by personalities in order to be able to do this? I think we could use this research as a starting ground for finding out

By Patricia on Thursday, November 26, 1998 - 03:45 pm:

Given that you were missing one group member's comments, I think the two of you did an admirable job of holding the discussion together.

Is the research important?
You made some interesting comments about switching between personalities. The possibility that these tasks could become a diagnostic for DID or to determine if DID is a real disorder were good observations as well.

Are the measures appropriate for addressing the research questions?

You demonstrated good understanding of the purpose of each task (the information each task was supposed to access) The research questions were very specific to DID (under what conditions did interpersonality amnesia occur or not occur?). I think this is why you had difficulty identifying the research question.

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

Your discussion on this question was less focused. Although you touched on some thought-provoking questions (i.e., can normal people fake multiplicity?), your comments regarding generalization could have been developed more.

Are the conclusions important?

You identified one issue that limits the conclusions the authors make- (i.e., the possible differences between DID patients who can switch and those who can't).

Overall, this was a good effort on a difficult article. Some of the broader apsects eluded you but the authors themselves did not draw many conclusions about the "big picture".

Grade = 3