Epilepsy is a highly prevalent neurological disorder affecting people from all walks of life.
Psychosocial adjustment and psychological morbidity have been longstanding challenges for
people with this clinical diagnosis. However, very little is known about the psychosocial
correlates of psychological morbidity, such as anxiety and depression, among people with
epilepsy in Hong Kong. Previous clinical studies suggest social cognitive impairment may
contribute to the poor psychosocial integration of people with epilepsy. An important aspect of
social cognition is the ability to attribute mental states to others so as to understand their behavior,
desires, and intentions. This prerequisite for successful social interactions is termed mentalizing.
This thesis reports two studies conducted to examine the psychosocial correlates of psychological
morbidity among people with epilepsy, and their mentalizing ability with regard to the
neuropsychological basis of mentalizing deficits that are specific to this neurological disorder.
Study 1 examines the association of psychological morbidity with a broad array of
personality traits and social skills in a sample of 54 local Chinese people with epilepsy.
Participants completed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the Social Performance
Survey Schedule (SPSS), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) via
semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that, independent of demographic and medical
variables and perceived illness-related impact, three personality traits (harm avoidance
temperament, self-directedness, and cooperation) and two subscales of interpersonal behaviors
(both positive and negative social skills) are significant psychosocial predictors of adjustment
among Chinese people with epilepsy.
Study 2 examines the neuropsychological basis of mentalizing deficits in people with
epilepsy. Thirty-nine right-handed local Chinese people with epilepsy and 38 matched healthy
controls were recruited for this study. The eyes test and the faux pas test were employed to study
the decoding and reasoning stages of mentalizing, respectively. The findings showed that, relative
to the healthy controls, the participants with epilepsy were impaired in decoding and reasoning
about the affective aspect of social materials; and at the same time, they were impaired in
reasoning about the cognitive aspects of others’ mental states—that is, in inferring intentionality.
Such a pattern of mentalizing deficits suggests a wider structural abnormality that may be
implicated in the brains of people with epilepsy.
In conclusion, epilepsy is associated with social cognitive impairment in emotion
recognition and intentionality inference, involving both decoding and reasoning about the
affective and cognitive aspects of others’ mental state, which may predispose people with
epilepsy to maladaptive psychosocial adjustment and functioning. The significance and
implications of the results are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/188740 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Ma, Man-kiu., 馬文嬌. |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48199254 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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