Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The psychological disorder of repetitive self-mutilation represents a significant clinical problem. In spite of the growing interest in this problem, insufficiency of information does not allow listing self-mutilation as a separate disorder in DSM-IV. The present research was aimed to add to an understanding the phenomenon of self-mutilating behavior from the point of view of Adler's individualPsychology. The early childhood recollections (ERs) of 32 self-mutilators (SM) drawn from the population of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility (WVCF) were compared to the ERs of 37 non self-mutilators (NSM) drawn from the same population. The participants completed the Demographic Questionnaire and the Early Childhood Recollection Questionnaire. The Manaster-Perryman Manifest Content Early Recollection Scoring Manual (Manaster-Perryman, 1974) was used to code the content of early childhood recollections. A Chi-square test of independence was used to test the statistical significance of the differences in the reported ERs. The results of the study indicated that ERs of SM differ from the ERs of NSM in the frequency of referring to mother, relatives, punishment, mutuality, new situation causing excitement, open hostility, active decision making, passivity, negative affect, and neutral affect (p < 0.05). A discriminant analysis was used to test the possibility of differentiating between SM and NSM. It was demonstrated that ER data could significantly discriminate between the two groups with prediction accuracy of 94.2%. Demographic information on the groups of SM and NSM in WVCF was obtained and statistically analyzed. Possible limitations of the research are discussed and future research directions are explored.

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