Dissociative experiences in a college age population: Follow-up with 1190 subjects

Although dissociation is again finding a place in the scientific literature, there exist relative few studies examining the process in a normal population. To clarify its components within a nonclinical sample, 1090 undergraduates were administered two brief self-report measures of dissociative experiences: the Dissociative Experiences Scale [DES (Bernstein & Putnam, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 727–735, 1986)] and the Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation [QED (Riley, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 176, 449–450, 1988)]. This study reports descriptive statistics and the factor analytic structure of this data. College age individuals report a variety of dissociative processes. Although the two instruments used were somewhat different in original conception, they were significantly correlated and describe similar experiences, especially in terms of the first three factors. Overall, the DES produced four factors which, in order of variance explained, are: 1. (1) absorption/derealization; 2. (2) depersonalization; 3. (3) segment amnesia; and 4. (4) in situ amnesia. The QED produced five factors which were: 1. (1)depersonalization; 2. (2) process amnesia; 3. (3) fantasy/daydream; 4. (4) dissociated body behavior; and 5. (5) trance. Results are discussed in terms of types of dissociative processes, implications for normal populations, and suggestions for future research.