Although it is known that men with Klinefelter syndrome have cognitive and behavioral problems, knowledge about psychological treatments is limited. This study describes the effect of a...Show moreAlthough it is known that men with Klinefelter syndrome have cognitive and behavioral problems, knowledge about psychological treatments is limited. This study describes the effect of a Selfmanagement training on social competence, social interaction and self-understanding. Scores of 23 Klinefelter men on the Social Skills Rating System, the Social Behavior Scale and the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire were compared to 41 control men. Both groups were compared on the pretest. The Klinefelter group has had a Selfmanagement training and a posttest after six months. Independent t-test and repeated measures were computed. The Klinefelter group showed significantly more impairments in social competence, social interactions and self-understanding than the control group on the pretest. No significant improvements on social competence, social interaction and self-understanding were found on the posttest for the Klinefelter men, so we looked at the means of the subtest. The means of the repeated measures indicate an improvement in averages after the training for social competence, frequency of social interactions and the emotion dimension of self-understanding. It turned out that the average excitement during social interaction has decreased considerable on the intervention period. It seems that the Selfmanagement training has a positive effect on the Klinefelter men. In the future research with a larger number of Klinefelter men is recommended as well as research on the effects at the long term. Because this is a first psychological training for men with Klinefelter, the small improvement found in the mean is already valuable and an open door for further research.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2016-10-24T00:00:00Z
Women with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have become focus of research only recently, thus far there is little knowledge about the female phenotype of ASD in relation to social information...Show moreWomen with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have become focus of research only recently, thus far there is little knowledge about the female phenotype of ASD in relation to social information processing. This study focused on social cognition in high functioning women with ASD with specific focus on social attention and empathy. Participants consisted of 31 women with ASD and 29 non-clinical controls. Social attention was assessed by measuring eye fixation patterns using eye tracking while participant watched four movie clips of children expressing specific emotions. Empathic abilities were assessed using the informant reported Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Results show deceased fixation duration on the face and mouth in women with ASD compared to non-clinical controls, no differences were found in fixation duration on the eyes, objects and outside the areas of interest. In addition, women with ASD had a reduced ability to take the other’s perspective, a reduced ability to imagine the actions and feelings of (fictional) characters, and experienced more personal distress in stressful situations compared to non-clinical controls. In women with ASD, a negative correlation was found between personal distress and total fixation duration to the face. It is concluded that women with ASD have a deviant attention in social situations and reduced cognitive empathic abilities, but have more distress in social situations al well. It is suggested that an attentional deployment hypothesis might explain the findings. These findings stress the need for adjusting diagnostic assessment and treatment of women with ASD to the female phenotype of ASD.Show less
Background: Previous research indicates that stress has less effect on the neurobiology of children with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) in comparison with a controlgroup, and it has a negative...Show moreBackground: Previous research indicates that stress has less effect on the neurobiology of children with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) in comparison with a controlgroup, and it has a negative effect on executive functions (EF). Children with DBD show deficits in EF. Goal: To examine the effect of stress on the EF of children with DBD. The research question is: To what extent do the EF of children in the age of 7 to 12 years who suffer from DBD, differ from the EF of children in the controlgroup during stress? Methods: 72 Dutch boys participated in this study. The following EF were examined: sustained attention, shifting, working memory and inhibition. This has been measured through parent reports on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and three cognitive subtests of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT). Stress was induced by: telling the child it was going to play a competition against another child which he thought he was going to loose and by negative feedback from the opponent. To test the differences a t-test and ANOVA were used. Results: According to their parents, children with DBD score significant (p<.05) worse on inhibition, working memory and shifting in comparison with the controlgroup. Also there is a significant maineffect of group on sustained attention. Thus children with DBD show deficits in EF. There is a significant maineffect of stress on the following EF: sustained attention, inhibition and shifting. Thus stress reduces the performance on EF. There is no reciprocal influence between stress and group. Conclusion: Children with DBD show deficits in EF. Stress has a negative influence on inhibition, shifting and sustained attention. The groups don’t differ in combination with stress. All children need help in coping with stress, especially children with DBD, because the show deficits in EF during both situations.Show less
Background: Previous research showed that frontal lobe dysfunctions are implicated in antisocial behaviour and also in self-evaluation. Therefore, frontal lobe dysfunctions might also disrupt the...Show moreBackground: Previous research showed that frontal lobe dysfunctions are implicated in antisocial behaviour and also in self-evaluation. Therefore, frontal lobe dysfunctions might also disrupt the ability to engage in self-reflective processes. Goal: To gain more insight in disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), this study will examine whether the perceived competence is different in the group of boys with DBD compared to the control group, and whether this difference is specific to boys with a higher degree of proactive or reactive aggression. Method: The participants consisted of 86 boys in the age of seven to twelve. Perceived competence was measured with a self-reporting questionnaire (Competentiebelevingsschaal voor Kinderen). Proactive and reactive aggression were assessed by parent and teacher questionnaires (Instrument voor Reactieve en Proactieve Agressie). Results: The boys with DBD scored lower at the perceived competence in the areas behaviour attitudes and self-esteem compared with the control group. The research indicates a negative correlation between the degree of proactive aggression, assed by the teacher, and perceived competence in the areas behaviour attitudes and self-esteem in the group of boys with DBD. Conclusion: This study shows that boys with DBD can encounter problems with competence in some areas. This seems specific to boys with a higher degree of proactive aggression. The amygdala is especially implicated in proactive aggression. A higher degree of proactive aggression doesn’t disrupt the ability to engage in self-reflective processes, because the frontal lobe is especially implicated in self-evaluation.Show less
