Callista wrote:
I think it was really pretty stupid of them to call their personality traits the same things the two major categories of mental illness were called those days. And they really didn't take autism into account--schizoid personality disorder has a lot in common with autism, if you are an introvert, but they have different causes. SPD assumes you are able to, but simply not interested in, social interaction...
Well, they called them psychoticism and neuroticism after the major categories of mental disorders on purpose, with the assumption that people break down under stress in different ways depending on their underlying makeup. Eysenck was working with people invalided out of the military in WWII to start with, so it made sense to look at temperament and breakdown patterns. Also, how introverted or extraverted you are affects the type of diagnosis within each group.
Also, there weren't any (diagnosed) high functioning autistic people to study back then, so how could they include them???? Autism research hadn't progressed far enough yet (not the Eysencks' fault).
Callista wrote:
So here's the weird thing: I scored only a 6 in neuroticism, but I've been diagnosed with major depression! Of course I am between episodes right now... if I am lucky I won't have another, but the odds say I will. I did answer honestly.
I think depression goes with bipolar on the psychotic axis. It's not the same as an anxiety disorder.
Callista wrote:
Oh, and speaking of honesty? Some of those questions were very obviously from the lie scale, meant to detect whether you were trying to make yourself look good... the thing is, I know there were a couple of them that I answered the way most people, if honest, would never answer: For example, "I have never taken advantage of anyone." I can't recall a single incident in which I have, not because I'm especially "good" but because I am extremely sensitive to the very idea of feeling betrayed or disappointed, to the extent that the idea of causing someone else to feel that way is just plain abhorrent to me. But most people have, on occasion, done something however minor that does take advantage of somebody. So realistically you can't assume that your lie scale is going to actually mean that the person lied on every one of those items. Most people will probably give at least one, if not more, honest but favorable answer.
P 12
E 3
N 6
L 6
Women score higher on the Lie scale. They know it's a combination of honesty and dishonesty. I wonder what the averages would be for autists.
11 May 2008, 11:08 am
