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Threat, self and dementia: Evidence from social psychology (13th April 2022) V3

Cheston, Richard

Threat, self and dementia:  Evidence from social psychology (13th April  2022) V3 Thumbnail


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Abstract

All forms of dementia are progressive and incurable, threatening almost all aspects of a person’s self or identity. Dementia, then, represents an existential threat. In this seminar I will outline some of the main findings from a ten-year collaboration between our small research group at UWE Bristol and Constantine Sedikides and Tom Wildschut from the Centre for Self and Identity at the University of Southampton. In a series of projects, we have looked at how people living with dementia defend themselves against this threat. In our initial studies we found evidence that people living with dementia selectively forgot highly threatening information about dementia that related to themselves, rather than to someone else. However, after inducing nostalgia (which acts to augment psychological resources including self-esteem and social connectedness) this discrepancy in performance disappears. We argue that these studies are, effectively, an analogue of important clinical phenomena including awareness and adjustment and that nostalgic reminiscence may be useful as an intervention.

Citation

Cheston, R. (2022, April). Threat, self and dementia: Evidence from social psychology (13th April 2022) V3. Presented at The Society for Psychotherapy Research, UK chapter annual conference, Nottingham University (Online)

Presentation Conference Type Lecture
Conference Name The Society for Psychotherapy Research, UK chapter annual conference
Conference Location Nottingham University (Online)
Start Date Apr 13, 2022
End Date Apr 13, 2022
Deposit Date Apr 14, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Series Title Seminar series
Keywords Dementia, Alzheimer's disease, threat, nostalgia, identity
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9327311

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