P-1041 - Dissociation proneness and vicarious emotional distress: the roles of imagination involvement and fragile self-knowledge

Abstract

Human beings get mutually understandings and supports through sharing experiences. However, witnessing others’ negative experiences can evoke affective responses which distress the observers and result in pathological consequences. Dissociation, a disruption of normally integrated functions in mental processing, is a stress-related symptom which is usually reported by people exposed to the vicarious negative experiences. In this study, we investigate the association between personal distress from vicarious negative experiences and dissociative experiences. We postulated low self-concept clarity, a psychosocial factor related to dissociative experiences, may mediate the link because stable and consistent self-awareness is a prerequisite for adequate empathetic reactions. The hypotheses were tested in two nonclinical samples with self-report measures of dissociative experiences, empathy styles, and self-concept clarity. The results from simple regression models showed dissociative experiences correlated with vicarious emotional distress and conflicting self-concept. More important, the association between dissociation and vicarious emotional feeling disappeared when self-concept clarity was added in the regression model. Conflicting self-knowledge fully accounted for the link between vicarious emotional distress and dissociative experiences.