Schizotypy and Risk-Taking Behaviour: the Contribution of Urgency

The Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE) defines schizotypy as a multidimensional psychopathology construct comprising Unusual Experiences, Cognitive Disorganisation, Impulsive Nonconformity, and Introvertive Anhedonia. Previous research indicates that schizotypy is associated with various risky behaviours. Urgency (emotional impulsivity) has a unique and clinically important effect on risk-taking. However, the interplay between schizotypy and urgency in relation to risk-taking has not received adequate consideration. A sample of 204 participants completed self-report scales measuring Schizotypy, Urgency and Risk-taking behaviour. Using structural equation modelling, a mediational model tested the degree to which O-LIFE subfactors directly and indirectly (via urgency) predicted self-reported likelihood to engage in Risk-taking behaviour. Results indicated that Cognitive Disorganisation and Introvertive Anhedonia negatively predicted engagement in Risk-taking behaviour, whereas Impulsive Nonconformity positively predicted engagement in Risk-taking behaviour. Unusual Experiences, Cognitive Disorganisation and Impulsive Nonconformity had indirect effects on Risk-taking through Urgency. Inclusion of Urgency added explanatory power to the schizotypy-risk relationship

The relationship between schizotypal personality and internet addiction in university students

The current study assessed the relationship between problematic internet behaviors, as measured by the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and schizotypal personality traits, measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE(B)). One hundred participants (aged between 20 and 30) were given a battery of psychometric assessments, including the IAT and O-LIFE(B), as well as measures of depression, and anxiety. Around 30% of the sample displayed responses to the IAT that suggested some problems controlling internet behaviors, and there was no gender difference in these figures. There were associations between both the impulsive nonconformity and introverted anhedonia schizotypal personality traits and problematic internet use, over and above those associated with depression and anxiety. This replicates some previous work that implies that impulsiveness and depression are predictive of behavioral addictions, but places them within a single construct. The findings also support the notion of two groups of users who display problematic internet behaviors - impulsive and depressed individuals

Individual Differences as Predictors of Social Networking

Research suggests that personality dictates specific Internet preferences. One area that remains relatively unexplored is the influence of personality on engagement with social networking sites (SNSs). The current study employs a ‘Uses and Gratifications’ framework to investigate whether personality, age, and sex predict motivations for using SNSs. The study explores both global and specific factors of personality using Eysenck's EPQ-R short form (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism) and Beck's SAS (sociotropy and autonomy). Principal component analysis identified ten distinct motivational components, which were then successfully predicted by individual differences through regression analyses. It is therefore suggested that individuals with different profiles vary in their motivations for using SNSs. Results support theoretical assumptions based on previous literature and personality dispositions

EXPANDING, REFINING, AND REPLICATING RESEARCH ON HIGH SCHOOL GAY-STRAIGHT STUDENT ALLIANCES AND SEXUAL MINORITY YOUTH

Sexual minority youth are at-risk for engaging in negative health behaviors and for experiencing at-school victimization. Specific benefits of attending a high school with a gay-straight student alliance (GSA), including lower risk for suicide, fewer alcohol problems and lower levels of psychological distress, have been reported. Limitations in the previous research studies, especially the use of retrospective designs, small sample sizes, and samples limited to a single geographic region, call into question the generalizability of these benefits. In an effort to overcome the aforementioned limitations, this analysis of data from 316 sexual minority high school students identified individual/family-, community-, and school-level variables that predicted academic, mental health, and substance use outcomes. After controlling for these and other demographic variables, results indicate that youth attending a high school with a GSA reported more favorable substance use outcomes when compared to peers attending a high school without a GSA. However, this association was not present when examining mental health outcomes, which may indicate that GSAs promote favorable mental heath outcomes in sexual minority young adults by way of reduced substance use in late adolescence. This association may also be the result of undetected interaction effects or non-linear associations among predictor and outcome variables. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed, along with suggestions for future research. Important limitations of this study are reviewed

Choosing Online Partners in the Virtual World: How Online Partners Characteristics Affect Online Dating

This study used a deductive approach examining how online partners\u27 characteristics impacted online users in the following areas: (1) Appearance (including looks, height &weight), (2) Financial Prospects, (3) Age, (4) Self-disclosure, (5) values and beliefs. This study was focused on three important factors of online users: (1) Gender, (2) Age, and (3) Motive. Quantitative survey methods were used in this study. The research study used descriptive analysis, relationship analysis, Independent-Samples T-Test and ANOVA analysis to test the variables between groups, among groups, and between or among different variables. This research focused on 20 to 45 year olds because most people in this age group are involved in online dating services, and they had the basic technology (computer, Internet, online dating service) skills. The results show that different genders had different preferences in online partners\u27 weight and ambitions. The results show that age group 1 and group 2 had different preferences in online partners\u27 height and online partners\u27 value and belief. Age group 1 and group 3 had different preferences in online partners\u27 age. The results also show that different motives had different preferences regarding online partners height, financial prospects and age. There were four limitation of this study: (1) the researcher chose three popular chat rooms in Taiwan instead of all online dating websites. (2) There was no way to find out if the participants responded more than once because the survey was totally anonymous. (3) Time limit. (4) Participants in three specific online chat rooms were selected for inclusion in the sample, constituting a sample of convenience. Thus, the results may not be generalized to any online dating service or population. The contributions of this study are that there are no online dating research surveys conducted using quantitative methods that were not in English. This study was conducted in Taiwan using the Chinese language. In online dating research studies, most researchers used qualitative methods to analyze the topic. This paper used quantitative methods, sending the survey to online users in Taiwan. The results of this study in Taiwan and of those studies in the literature are very consistent

On Art, Neurodivesity & Giant Octopussies: Reflections on art-science commission #MagicCarpet

I created, designed, edited and wrote this 55-page booklet, On Art, Neurodivesity & Giant Octopussies: Reflections on art-science commission #MagicCarpet. It documents my reflections of the award-winning art-psychiatry commission We Sat On a Mat and Had A Chat And Made Maps! #MagicCarpet. It is my invitation for feedback, and participation for #MagicCarpet’s next adventures, and will be launched 30/1/2020 as part of the exhibition launch of a solo exhibition at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre (30/1/2020 - 04/04/2020). I initiated, led, curated and created #MagicCarpet as the first artist-in-residence of Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre (SGDP), King’s College London. My mentor was Professor of Psychiatry Philip Asherson. #MagicCarpet was commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Arts Council England. The project was also supported by Cultural Programming and SGDP, both of King's College London. The 18-month programme generated a creative space for people from diverse and divergent backgrounds to gather and chat about mind wandering, constructs of ‘normality’, and neurodiversity – all problematic, unstable terms and, thus, fascinating. Created in dialogue with Professor of Psychiatry Philip Asherson, #MagicCarpet mobilises Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and how that relates to mind wandering and visual art as a case study. Processes include an artist-in-residency programme, workshops and a range of artistic outputs, including a tapestry art installation, drawings, performances and badges. 10,000 people have experienced #MagicCarpet through its exhibitions, workshops and keynote lectures. Venues include the Science Museum and Southbank Centre. Platforms include the Arts in Mind Festival in London and SOS Dyslexia Conference in San Marino. Press include Big Issue North and Resonance FM. There were also 2 podcasts and 13 short films. One of the films was in the Official Selection of the 2019 Arts and Humanities Research Council Research In Film Award, while another was an EU-funded one viewed 17,545 times in the first month of publication. Publications include an article that was read 2000 times in the first 2 days in The Conversation (10.6 million readers) and a top 2018 editorial on neurodiversity and women in Disability Arts Online. 100% of the feedback for several events state that the work challenges existing understanding of cognitive differences, mental health and interdisciplinary collaborations. An image won a National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement 2018 Images Competition Award for Culture Change, while another was on the cover of British Journal of Psychiatry. #MagicCarpet artworks have also been nominated for Sovereign Asian Art Award 2019, the largest art prize in Asia Pacific. Exuberant and playful, #MagicCarpet exploits art’s propensity for ambiguity, and extends the ambition of the All Party Parliamentary Group report on Arts Health and Wellbeing with its high- quality artistic outcomes that build cultural intelligence. Inclusive and empowering, #MagicCarpet contributes to discourses and practices around: arts leadership; socially-engaged art; drawing; installation, tapestry, performance, disability and participatory art; art writing; interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration, feminism, intersectionality, medical humanities, inclusive practices and (neuro)diversity, while spearheading what could be termed ‘neurodiverse art’ and ‘ADHD art’. View booklet as slideshow: https://issuu.com/kaisyngtan/docs/2019_magiccarpet_booklet_drkaisyngtan Download booklet: http://kaisyngtan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019_MagicCarpet_booklet_DrKaiSyngTan.pdf Solo exhibition: https://www.craftanddesign.com/events/magiccarpet-a-tapestry-art-exhibition-by-kai-syng-tan/ Website: www.kaisyngtan.com/magiccarpet Twitter: https://twitter.com/wesatonama

The relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression in a community sample

This thesis sought to investigate the relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression use. Psychopathy has been strongly linked with increased levels of aggressive behaviour and in particular violence (Porter ;Woodworth, 2006). However, thus far research has predominantly focused on direct forms of aggression with minimal research considering indirect forms of aggression. On the basis of previous research, it was hypothesised that not only would psychopathy be significantly related to indirect aggression use, but that this relationship would remain after controlling for the shared variance with direct aggression. It was also hypothesised that this relationship would be mediated by deficits in affective empathy and moderated by both gender and levels of social skills. A series of quasi-experimental studies were conducted to test this hypothesis using regression analysis and structural equation modelling. Study 1 sought to test the basic relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression using the Psychopathic Personality Inventory - Revised and the Indirect Aggression Scale respectively on a sample of 103 university students. Study 2 ;3 then expanded this and sought to investigate both the role of empathy, using the Empathy Quotient (Study 2), and gender (Study 3) using a sample of 201 university students, 83 males and 118 females. Study 4 used the Social Skills Inventory in a sample of 107 students to test the hypothesised social skill moderation of this relationship. Finally Study 5 and 6 sought to redress issues of both the limited samples and use of self-report measures in the previous studies by replicating these findings in a general community population of 204 (Study 5) and using behavioural measures of empathy on a sample of 117 (Study 6).The results indicate that psychopathy is significantly related to the use of indirect aggression, even after controlling for direct aggression, and that this was driven predominantly by the impulsive antisociality and coldheartedness factors. This relationship was found to be significantly mediated by affective, but not cognitive, empathy deficits although only for males, not for females, which may arguably point towards differences in the function of indirect aggression for male compared to female psychopaths. Non-verbal social skills were found to significantly moderate this relationship among students, however this finding could not be replicated. These findings would appear to imply that psychopathy is related to a general increase in aggression, rather than a specific increase in violence. This supports the theorisation of non-criminal psychopathy as a moderated behavioural manifestation of the underlying personality traits rather than a sub-clinical version of the disorder. The sex differences in the relationship would seem to imply that the different types of aggression use may have different underlying meanings for males and females high on psychopathic traits.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Investigating the Existence, Cognitive Attributes and Potential Pathological Consequences of the Extreme Female Brain

The ‘extreme female brain’ (EFB) is derived from the empathising - systemising theory (E-S) which hypothesises that sex differences in cognition exist on a continuum, based on abilities in ‘empathising’ and ‘systemising’ (Baron-Cohen, 2003). The EFB profile; extreme empathising alongside deficient systemising, has received little attention in social cognitive neuroscience research, compared to the extreme male brain, which has advanced the knowledge of sex differences in the expression of autism. Currently, there is no solid evidence of a clinical pathology relating to the EFB nor a marker of cognition associated with a person’s ‘place’ on the E-S continuum. Here, an episodic memory paradigm with social and non-social conditions was given to participants along with measures of empathising and systemising. Scores on the social condition predicted where a person lies on the E-S continuum. The thesis then investigated the hypothesis that schizophrenia is expressed in the feminised profile (Badcock & Crepsi, 2006) and the presumption that empathising and systemising demonstrate a tradeoff. Elements of paranoia were associated with an empathising bias. However, a bias in systemising ability was associated with schizotypy along with a significant overlap in the expression of autistic traits and schizotypy. Therefore, schizophrenia as a whole is unlikely to be the pathology seen in the EFB, rather, the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. A trade-off between empathising and systemising was seen but only in participants over 36 years. These results have significant implications for assessment and treatment of neuropsychological disorders and provide more specific details on the potential EFB pathology. i

A discursive analysis exploring constructions of sex addiction in clinical text and 'addict' accounts

Introduction: Numerous accounts have been developed which portray sex addiction and the sex addict. These in turn have led to screening tools, said to be capable of accurately distinguishing the sex addict from non-addicts. However, there are a wealth of various, diverse and conflicting understandings of addiction, sexuality and sex addiction. Sex addiction also carries moral implications, leading some to argue the term is used as stigmatising label for those who deviate from a socially constructed sexual standard. Despite the clinical significance of the growing use of the term, to date there has been a dearth of research which has critically reflected on sex addiction as a concept, and the meaning for those who identify as sex addicts. Objective: This study aimed to explore a seminal text and screening assessment’s description of sex addiction; as well as sex addicts and nonaddicts’ own descriptions of their sexual behaviour and perspectives on sexual addiction; using a qualitative methodology sensitive to the adaptable and social and historical contextual aspects of discourse. Design: A primarily Foucauldian Discourse Analysis approach was taken in the analysis of data from text and semi-structured interviews. Method: Data was collected from the book “Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sex Addiction” (Carnes’, 2001), and the “Sex Addiction Screening Test – Revised” (Carnes, Green & Carnes, 2010), as well as from nine interviews conducted with men identifying as sex addicts and non-addicts from both the UK and USA. Results: The findings demonstrated three main discourses: A Loss of Control, ‘Good’ vs. ‘Bad’ sex, and a Cultural Imperative to Intervene in Sex Addiction. The study demonstrated expert, addicts and non-addicts talk about sex addiction show a number of similarities and some select distinctions. The ways in which sex addiction was talked about were complex and at times inconsistent. Scientific, psychological and moralistic discourses were commonly drawn on to position sex addiction as distinguishable from ‘normal’ sexual behaviour. Health and biomedical discourses were also drawn on to manage accountability, and to construct the sex addict as sick, naïve and disempowered. Correspondingly there was a reciprocal-construction of experts as credible and impartial in being able to identify sex addiction. These experts and wider society were necessitated to identify and protect against a projected exponential rise in sex addiction, catalysed by the advance and accessibility of Internet pornography. Discussion: The study offers new understanding on the discourses of sexual addiction and the subject positioning, actions and subjectivities it creates and restricts for those identifying as sex addicts. Those discourses identified correspond with contemporary discourses surrounding addiction and sexuality; though offer novel permutations which invite further research. The results of this study ascertain that there is a need for healthcare professionals to reflect upon the risks of uncritical acceptance and practice using the sex addiction label, given the breadth and diversity of discourses it encompasses