Arndis Simonsen verjir ph.d. um skisofreni á Aarhus Universitet

Fríggjadagin 17. november kl. 14 fer Arndis Simonsen, cand.psych., at verja ph.d.-ritgerð sína á Aarhus Universitet. Ritgerðin er um hvussu fólk við skisofreni verða ávirkað av øðrum og hvussu hetta ávirkar tey. Ritgerðin kallast “Social Influence: Imitation and Conformity in Schizophrenia”

Ole Mors, professari á Psychosis Research Unit, iPSYCH, Institut for Klinisk Medisin, Aarhus Universitetshospital hevur verið høvuðsvegleiðari.

Hjávegleiðarar hava verið Andreas Roepstorff, professari, og Vibeke Bliksted, lektari, bæði á Aarhus Universitet og Daniel Campbell-Meiklejohn, seniorgranskari á School of Psychology, University of Sussex.

Í metingarnevndini eru

Christine Parsons, lektari, Interacting Minds Centre, Institut for Klinisk Medisin, , Aarhus Universitet, forkvinna og leiðari fyri verjuna

Jennifer Cook, granskari á School of Psychology, University of Birmingham

Leonhard Schilbach, granskari á Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry

Verjan er almenn og verður í Auditorium hjá Aarhus Universitetshospital, Skovagervej 2, inngongd 30, 8240 Risskov. Verjan er á enskum. Hon byrjar stundisliga kl. 14 og tekur umleið 2 tímar. Aftaná skipar Psychosis Research Unit fyri móttøku.

Samandráttur

Social Influence in Schizophrenia

A new PhD project from the Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University, contributes to new knowledge about how people with schizophrenia are influenced by others and which potential consequences this has both on the characteristic symptomatology and their level of functioning. The project was carried out by Arndis Simonsen, who is defending her dissertation on 17/11.

We are constantly influenced by other people. Examples of this could be that we ask a friend for advice about what he/she would do in a given situation or that we follow changes in fashion. It is unclear whether the tendency to be influenced by others is altered in schizophrenia and whether a potential alteration would impact the symptomatology or the level of functioning. The aim of this project was to investigate how individuals with schizophrenia are influenced by others, both on a conscious and sub-conscious level, compared to healthy individuals. A range of cognitive tests were used to assess the susceptiblity to influence, for instance by measuring the participants' tendency to imitate others' movements or their tendency to change their opinions according to other people's opinions. The study suggests that patients with schizophrenia are at least as susceptible to social influence as healthy individuals when it comes to sub-conscious processes. However, patients display difficulties when they consciously have to use information from others during decision making and this may contribute to the characteristic  symptomatology and the social impairments, often accompanying the disorder