Leiden University Student Repository

Jansen, Sophie (2022)

Een pyrronistische denkstijl en (het ontbreken van) angsten: Rekening houdend met cannabisgebruik

Bachelor thesis | Psychologie (BSc)

Introduction: Philosophical Pyrrhonism states that when someone does not suspend judgment (SOJ) about non-evident matters, ataraxia automatically follows and is thus free of fears. Cannabis use should moderate this because it can influence divergent thinking. Methods: SOJ is measured with 10 self-developed statements (4 argumentative and 6 intuitive) and the GAD7 measures ataraxia. We expected that a high score on SOJ predicted a low score on GAD7. And we predict that more cannabis use leads to a lower SOJ score. The N=207, with 19 missing. The average participant was 21,526 years old and did not use cannabis (49.6%). Of these, 19% were men and 70.4% were women (1.12% falls under other). Results: EFA showed that SOJ loads on 4 components. In the simple regression analysis, the normal distribution assumption was not met, so we analyzed the Adjusted Rsquare. There was no significant effect (R2Adj = .011, p = .071, df: 205). The intuitive questions did have a significant effect (R2Adj ...Show moreIntroduction: Philosophical Pyrrhonism states that when someone does not suspend judgment (SOJ) about non-evident matters, ataraxia automatically follows and is thus free of fears. Cannabis use should moderate this because it can influence divergent thinking. Methods: SOJ is measured with 10 self-developed statements (4 argumentative and 6 intuitive) and the GAD7 measures ataraxia. We expected that a high score on SOJ predicted a low score on GAD7. And we predict that more cannabis use leads to a lower SOJ score. The N=207, with 19 missing. The average participant was 21,526 years old and did not use cannabis (49.6%). Of these, 19% were men and 70.4% were women (1.12% falls under other). Results: EFA showed that SOJ loads on 4 components. In the simple regression analysis, the normal distribution assumption was not met, so we analyzed the Adjusted Rsquare. There was no significant effect (R2Adj = .011, p = .071, df: 205). The intuitive questions did have a significant effect (R2Adj = .032, p = .006, df: 205). The multiple regression analysis with the moderator was not significant (R2Adj = .007, p = .117, df: 204). Discussion: SOJ does not significantly predict ataraxia. There is a small effect between SOJ-intuitive and the GAD7. But this effect is most likely due to 4 confounding variables in the SOJ questionnaire (see EFA) and a spread of anxiety due to time pressure. Cannabis use has no influence on this effect. Future research is needed to clarify confounding variables and biases.Show less

Pyrronisme

(ontbreken van) angsten

cannabisgebruik

ataraxie

SOJ

Author

Jansen, Sophie

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Supervisors

Dr. T.A. van den Berg

ECTS Credits

15

Language

nl