Information processing of an acquaintance rape scenario among high- and low-dissociating college women

Causal connection between dissociation and ongoing interpersonal violence: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

To identify evidence for dissociation as a cause of ongoing interpersonal violence.

METHOD

A systematic review of the literature retrieved from ten databases.

RESULTS

Fifteen studies yielded from our search strategy have been included in the review; eleven of these were longitudinal and four were experimental. The evidence indicates that pathological dissociation may contribute towards enduring interpersonal violence. Thus, dissociation may account for instances of repeated victimisation. There are similar indications concerning offenders, but study designs in this area allow one to draw fewer causal conclusions. There is some evidence that dissociation decreases information processing from the limbic system, which may be one underlying neurofunctional mechanism of persistent violence.

CONCLUSION

There is growing evidence for dissociation as a cause of interpersonal violence. However, the available evidence is still limited, and our review rather reveals an important research gap. Future longitudinal and experimental studies aimed at clarifying the role of dissociation in the context of violence should take into account the theoretical and empirical complexity around the concept of dissociation.

The role of dissociation in revictimization across the lifespan: A 32-year prospective study

Exposure to childhood abuse puts women at risk for revictimization in adult intimate relationships, but knowledge about the mechanism by which it occurs is limited. The present study investigated whether dissociation mediates the effect of exposure to physical or sexual child abuse on intimate partner violence in adulthood. We tested this using prospective data collected from birth to age 32 from 80 female participants in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. We found that women who experienced sexual or physical abuse during the first 17.5 years of life (n = 37) were more likely (r = 0.30, p < .01) to experience intimate partner violence in adulthood (ages 20-32). Furthermore, we found that dissociation partially mediated this effect. Specifically, exposure to childhood abuse predicted greater dissociation in late adolescence (age 19), which in turn predicted more intimate partner violence during early to mid-adulthood. The results of this study highlight the mediating role played by dissociation in the revictimization of women abused during childhood, and speak to the need to develop interventions designed to prevent intimate partner violence among abused girls or adult women with a history of abuse.

Exploring revictimization risk in a community sample of sexual assault survivors

Previous research points to links between risk detection (the ability to detect danger cues in various situations) and sexual revictimization in college women. Given important differences between college and community samples that may be relevant to revictimization risk (e.g., the complexity of trauma histories), the current study explored the link between risk detection and revictimization in a community sample of women. Community-recruited women (N = 94) reported on their trauma histories in a semistructured interview. In a laboratory session, participants listened to a dating scenario involving a woman and a man that culminated in sexual assault. Participants were instructed to press a button "when the man had gone too far." Unlike in college samples, revictimized community women (n = 47) did not differ in terms of risk detection response times from women with histories of no victimization (n = 10) or single victimization (n = 15). Data from this study point to the importance of examining revictimization in heterogeneous community samples where risk mechanisms may differ from college samples.

I get no respect: the relationship between betrayal trauma and romantic relationship functioning

The current study explored the association among young adults' (N = 86) experiences of betrayal traumas (interpersonal trauma perpetrated by someone close) prior to age 18, psychological well-being, attachment styles, and romantic relationship function (i.e., dedication, relationship adjustment, and perceived partner respect). Based on betrayal trauma theory, we posited that participants' reports of betrayal traumas would be negatively related to their perceptions of respect from their partner but would not relate to their perceptions of relationship adjustment or dedication. Furthermore, we expected that the relationship between betrayal traumas and respect would be mediated by participants' attachment style and psychological well-being. Results identified a negative association between betrayal traumas and psychological well-being and a positive association between betrayal trauma and anxious and avoidant attachment. Betrayal traumas were also shown to be negatively related to partner respect and not significantly associated with dedication and relationship adjustment. Anxious attachment and psychological well-being were significant mediators for the relationship between betrayal traumas and perceived respect.

Dissociation, memory commission errors, and heightened autonomic reactivity

If dissociative symptoms are manifestations of a psychological defense mechanism, one would expect people who have such symptoms to react with lower levels of physiological arousal and with memory omissions to emotionally provocative material. The current study tested this assumption in a sample of undergraduates. Sixty-two undergraduate students viewed a highly emotional video fragment. Pearson's product-moment correlations were calculated between dissociation (as indexed by the Dissociative Experiences Scale, DES) and all dependent measures. High dissociators exhibited elevated skin conductance responses (SCRs) to the fragment. Memory for the video fragment was then tested. While omission errors were unrelated to dissociation, high dissociators exhibited a tendency to produce commission errors. This could not be explained by a reduced working memory capacity. However, fantasy proneness was found related to high dissociators' commission errors. Thus, it seems that a pattern of heightened emotional reactivity and commission errors is typical for people with elevated dissociation scores. This pattern is difficult to reconcile with the defensive function ascribed to dissociation.

Social cognition and revictimization risk

The ability to accurately detect violations in social contracts likely helps people to avoid or to withdraw from relationships in which they are at risk of being cheated or harmed. Betrayal trauma theory argues that detecting violations of social contracts may be counter-productive to survival under certain conditions, such as when a victim is dependent on a perpetrator. When dependent on a perpetrator (as in the case of child abuse perpetrated by a caregiver), the victim may be better able to preserve the necessary attachment with the caregiver by remaining unaware of the abuse. Thus, the victim may develop a compromised capacity to detect violations of social contracts in the caregiving relationship. Over time, the victim may develop more generalized problems detecting violations in social exchange rules; in turn, generalized problems in detecting violations of social contracts may increase risk for later victimization. Participants in the current study were asked to detect violations in three types of conditional (if-then) rules: abstract, social contract (rules involving a social exchange), and precautionary (rules involving safety). Young adults who reported experiences of revictimization made more errors on social contract and precautionary problems than a no revictimization group; group performance did not differ for abstract problems, suggesting these findings are not explained by general deficits in conditional reasoning. Pathological dissociation significantly predicted errors on social contract and precautionary problems.

Maltreatment and trauma: tracking the connections in adolescence

Posttraumatic stress disorder is one of the most common and often prolonged consequences of childhood maltreatment. In this article the authors consider theories of trauma continuity, with emphasis on a relational path to maladjustment that links childhood maltreatment to elevated trauma symptomatology and intimate victimization in adolescent dating relationships.

Trait dissociation affects the behavioral response to cholecystokinin tetrapeptide in healthy man

Trait dissociation might influence the response to panicogens in normal controls. The behavioral effects of 25 microg of cholecystokinin tetrapeptide (CCK-4) were studied in 18 healthy men, nine each with high or low trait dissociation. Subjects with high trait dissociation showed a significantly lower increase of acute dissociative, anxiety and panic symptoms compared with subjects with low trait dissociation. Trait dissociation should be assessed in further behavioral challenge studies as a potentially important covariate.