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Self Awareness in Dementia

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Self-Awareness In Dementia

Pablo Gonzalez

Estrella Mountian Community College: PSY 101

April 7, 2015

Self-Awareness In Dementia

The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in self-awareness between ten patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and twelve patients that suffer from frontotemporal dementia. However, in the study they also include a group of eleven normal adults to compare the results with. The method used in this study was to have the subjects describe their current personality and their personality before the disease. The first hypothesis was that patients with FTD would be the most inaccurate when describing their current personality. The second hypothesis was that patients who suffered from FTD would not only describe their current personality incorrectly, but they would also fail to acknowledge a change in personality before the disease. The subjects involved in the study were recruited from a dementia clinic in San Francisco. The researchers gathered a broad group of subjects that varied in race, sex and financial status. The subjects then went through a verification process in order for them to qualify for this study. The group of normal adults were recruited through a local newspaper ad and the rest volunteered. All of the subjects needed an informant for them to describe their personality. Therefore, the results would be more accurate and unbiased. The procedure for the study involved a questionnaire called the Interpersonal Adjectives Scale. The questionnaire is based on the “circumplex model” theory that implies individual personalities are either love or affiliation and power or dominance. The subjects’ scores determine their position on the personality axes. Both the subject and their informant completed the questionnaire and the subjects’ results were subtracted from the informants’ assessment. The

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