The Impact Of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment On Cognitive Flexibility

Purpose: To explore the mechanism of mental disorders of individuals who experienced psychological maltreatment in childhood,in this dissertation we focused on the study of the features of cognitive flexibility about individuals with the history of psychological maltreatment.Methods:(1)With the method of cluster sampling,selected 500 college students in a university.The Child Psychological Maltreatment Scale and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory were tested in this survey.(2)According to the standard of Child Psychological Maltreatment Scale selected subjects,we chosed the psychological maltreatment positive group including 28 students as experimental group,the psychological maltreatment negative group including 22 students as control group.(3)Experiment One: Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST),experiment designed with single-factor two-levels.The aim was to find out the feature on reactive flexibility under the rules of unknown situation of college students with psychological maltreatment in childhood.(4)Experiment Two: Dimensional Change Card Sort(DCCS),experiment designed with the mixed 2(groups)×2(types).The aim was to find out the feature on reactive flexibility under the rules of the known situation of college students with psychological maltreatment in childhood.(5)Experiment Three: Verbal Fluency Test(VFT),experiment designed with single-factor two-levels.The aim was to find out the feature on spontaneous flexibility of college students with psychological maltreatment in childhood.Results:(1)Through the structural equation model,we found that the psychological maltreatment in childhood has significantly direct effect on cognitive flexibility.(2)In experiment 1,the dependent variable was the total test times,the results showed that the experimental group and the control group(t'=2.691,p=0.010)were significantly different and when the dependent variable was the persistent error count,the results showed that the experimental group and the control group exists significant difference(t'=2.439,p=0.022),the total test times and the persistent error count of the experimental group were higher than the control group.(3)In experiment 2,the dependent variable was the reaction time,according to the result of Repeated Measurement ANOVA,the main effects of groups(F=1.255,p=0.269)was not significant,tasks(F=1.185,p=0.282)was not significant,and the interaction of task types and groups(F=4.103,p=0.049)were significant.Embodied in the experimental group in the conversion of reaction time was significantly higher than the not conversion reaction time.And when the dependent variable was the wrong numbers,the results showed that the group and the control group(F=17.725,p=0.000)were significant on the task types,further analysis of the all groups in the conversion error count was significantly higher than not conversion reaction.(4)In experiment 3,the dependent variable was the ratio of type to quantity of the answers,the results showed that the experimental group and the control group exists significant difference(F=4.202,p=0.046),the experimental group is lower than the control group.Conclusion: Childhood psychological maltreatment experience influcnced one's cognitive flexibility,lead to the reaction flexibility and spontaneous flexibility of the individual in varying degrees of damage,and had no relationship with the clarity of the rules.