Understanding non-suicidal self-injury: psychological and psychophysiological factors that distinguish self-injurers from non-injurers

Download

index.pdf

Date

2017

Author

Tuna, Ezgi

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

347
views

137
downloads

The purpose of the present study was to explore the frequency, characteristics and functions of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), and to identify psychological and psychophysiological factors that distinguish self-injurers from non-injurers, in a sample of Turkish college students. In Study 1, frequency and characteristic features of self-injury were explored, and potential gender differences in NSSI were assessed. Next, self-injurers and non-injurers were compared on emotion dysregulation, self-compassion, self-criticism, positive and negative affect, and thought suppression variables. In Study 2, in a laboratory-based design, pain perception and changes in pain perception as a result of distress were explored. Furthermore, skin conductance levels were recorded to assess physiological reactivity of participants during painful and distressing stimuli. Findings suggested that NSSI is a frequent and repetitive behavior in the current sample, which commonly serves an emotion regulation function. The only gender difference was found in the methods of self-injury. As expected, NSSI group scored higher on emotion dysregulation, self-criticism, negative affect, and thought suppression; and lower on self-compassion as compared to non-injurers. Furthermore, self-injurers had higher tolerance to pain; however, pain perception did not change as a function of distress. Although self-injurers reported relatively more distress during a distressing task, both groups showed comparable levels of physiological reactivity and distress tolerance in objective measures. Moreover, self-injurers and controls did not differ in physiological reactivity during painful stimuli. Importance, limitations, and possible implications of the present study, as well as recommendations for future research were discussed.

Subject Keywords

Suicide., Mental health., Psychology, Pathological., Psychology Phd thesis

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12620948/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/26423

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Self-compassion in relation to psychopathology Bayramoğlu, Ali; Gençöz, Faruk; Department of Psychology (2011) The aim of this thesis was to examine the concept of self-compassion in relation to psychopathology with mediating effects of experiential avoidance and metacognition in a Turkish university student sample. Self-Compassion which is a recently formulated promising concept in western psychology consists of three components: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness. In addition to self-compassion, recent psychological concepts of cognitive (metacognition) and behavioral (experiential avoidance) perspecti...
Shame-proneness vs guilt-proneness and their relationship to attributional styles, coping strategies and depressive symptom levels of university students İnandılar Topaç, Hicran; Gençöz, Faruk; Department of Psychology (2010) The purpose of the present study is to investigate the link between shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, attributional styles, and coping strategies, and then to determine which of these variables are significantly related to depressive symptomatology in the sample of Turkish undergraduates. Moreover, the association between shame-proneness, guilt-proneness and depressive symptomatology through attributional styles and coping strategies is examined. Four hundred undergraduates from different universities compl...
Psychometric evaluation of perceived stress scale for Turkish university students Orucu, Muge Celik; Demir, Ayhan Gürbüz (Wiley, 2009-02-01) The purpose of the study was to investigate the applicability of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to a Turkish sample. PSS (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) is a general appraisal instrument that measures the degree to which situations in one's life are appraised as stressful. Five hundred and eight freshman students at the Middle East Technical University at the age of 16-29 filled in the Turkish translation of the PSS. The alpha coefficient for the Turkish version of PSS was found as 0.84, and PSS cor...
Examination of metacognitive factors in relation to anxiety and depressive symptoms: a cross-cultural study Yılmaz, Adviye Esin; Kazak Berument, Sibel; Department of Psychology (2007) The aim of this thesis was to examine the validity of the main concepts of metacognitive theory in a Turkish sample and set the stage for metacognitive research in Turkey from the clinical psychology perspective. In addition to this, research attention was focused on two important topics remained to be empirically validated in the metacognition literature: (1) the unique contributions of “cognitive content” versus “metacognition” to the prediction of anxiety and depression symptoms, and (2) the vulnerabilit...
Confirmatory Factor Analyses of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) in a Turkish Adolescent Sample ATALAR, DİLEK SARITAŞ; Gençöz, Tülin; Ozen, Ayca (Hogrefe Publishing Group, 2015-01-01) The aim of the present study was to explore the psychometric properties of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) among Turkish adolescents. A total of 595 high school students (300 females and 295 males) whose ages ranged between 14 and 17 years participated in the study, and were administered the DERS, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Childhood Depression Inventory (CDI). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the six-factor structure of the DERS among adolescents. I...

Citation Formats

E. Tuna, “Understanding non-suicidal self-injury: psychological and psychophysiological factors that distinguish self-injurers from non-injurers,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2017.