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Viewing Cognitive Conflicts as Dilemmas: Implications for Mental Health
Journal of Constructivist Psychology
|May 26, 2012
Summary
Internal conflicts, specifically implicative dilemmas, are more prevalent in individuals with mental health conditions. These cognitive conflicts correlate with higher symptom severity, distinguishing clinical from non-clinical populations.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Internal conflicts are recognized as significant in mental health across psychological traditions.
- Personal construct theory and the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) have operationalized measures of conflict.
- Conflict arises when desired change from one perspective is undesirable from another.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cognitive conflicts in clinical and control samples.
- To compare the clinical value of different conflict types.
- To examine the relationship between cognitive conflict and symptom severity (SCL-90-R).
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) to assess cognitive conflicts.
- Compared a clinical sample (n=284) with a control sample (n=322).
- Assessed symptom severity using the SCL-90-R.
Main Results:
- Implicative dilemmas were the sole conflict type differentiating clinical and non-clinical samples.
- Implicative dilemmas were present in 53% of the clinical sample versus 34% of the non-clinical sample.
- Participants with implicative dilemmas exhibited higher symptom severity.
Conclusions:
- Implicative dilemmas represent a key cognitive conflict associated with clinical populations.
- The frequency of implicative dilemmas is significantly higher in clinical samples.
- Implicative dilemmas are clinically relevant and linked to increased symptom severity.
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