Neuropsychological performance, acculturation and personality: A South African study

Transcription

1 Neuropsychological performance, acculturation and personality: A South African study R. Murphy (PhD) Applied Psychology University College Cork Ireland N. Cassimjee (PhD) Psychology University of Pretoria South Africa PSI Annual Conference November, 2008, Tullow, Co Carlow, Ireland 1

2 Introduction To date variables such as acculturation, language and ethnicity within the neuropsychological test literature has been underreported This research investigates the association between acculturation, computerised neuropsychological test performance and personality variables (temperament and character dimensions) 2

3 Introduction Urbanisation and the historical genesis of South African society are inextricably associated with socio-demographic disparities and dynamic acculturative processes Levels of acculturation vary widely for individuals and groups over time and taking cognisance of this will enhance our understanding of heterogeneity between and within groups The acculturation processes, can thus be considered as a potential moderator variable in neuropsychological test performance 3

4 Method The University of Pennsylvania Computerised neuropsychological Test Battery (PennCNP) was used for this study. In addition three questionnaires were completed: Cloninger s (1993) Temperament and Character Inventory A South African Acculturation Scale and A basic sociodemographic questionnaire 4

5 Sample composition Sixty-three students from a residential university in South Africa completed the computerised sessions as part of their research methods and neurocognitive psychology courses Fifty-five students had 4 years of tertiary education and eight students had 5 years of tertiary education Ages ranged from 20 to 48 with a mean age of (4.94) The average number of years of mothers education was (2.60) and fathers education was (2.72) 5

6 PennCNP Battery The full battery of the PennCNP comprises the Emotions battery, Executive Functioning and Abstract Reasoning battery and the Memory battery ( The PennCNP is not a diagnostic tool and as such no inferences can be made regarding performance on any combination of scales for predictive use. For purposes of expediency and time constraints the pilot sample completed both the Executive Functioning and Abstract Reasoning tests as well as the Emotions tests 6

7 PennCNP Battery A general sensory-motor and familiarization task is administrated before the tests commence so as to allow participants to become comfortable with the computer-based testing procedure The Executive Functioning and Abstract Reasoning battery consisted of the following tests: the Penn Abstraction, Inhibition and the Working Memory Task (AIM); The Letter- N-Back (LNBC2), the Penn Conditional Exclusion Task (PCET); the Penn Logical Reasoning Test (SPVRT) and Raven s Progressive Matrices (SRAVEN) 7

8 PennCNP Battery The Emotions battery consisted of the following tests: Penn Facial Memory Test (CPF); the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (ER40), the Penn Emotion Discrimination Task (EDF40) and the Penn Emotional Acuity Test (PEAT40) 8

9 Cloninger s (1993) Temperament and Character Inventory The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) consists of 238 questions with a true-false answer format. The TCI is based on the biosocial model of Cloninger (1993) which divides personality into four temperament and three character dimensions The four biologically based temperament dimensions include novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HD), reward dependence (RD) and persistence (P). These are defined as genetically homogeneous and independently inherited 9

10 Cloninger s (1993) Temperament and Character Inventory The three socially based character dimensions comprise self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (CO) and selftranscendence (ST) and these reflect individual differences in self-concept as related to experience 10

11 South African Acculturation Scale (SAAS) A review of literature indicates a paucity of acculturation data in neuropsychological assessment research and confounding the lack of research is the fact that there seems to be no true measure for acculturation The acculturation measures that have been developed internationally are not appropriate for use in South Africa and appropriate measures with adequate validity have not been developed for use on the South African population 11

12 South African Acculturation Scale (SAAS) Kramers (2000) developed the South African Acculturation Scale (SAAS) for South African use The scale is a 20 item self report attitudinal measure comprising of three subscales (Assimilation, Integration and Rejection) 12

13 Socio-demographic questionnaire The socio-demographic questionnaire was designed to capture basic data about respondents gender, age, handedness, language of schooling, home language, choice of language use, as well as parental education levels 13

14 Results The present study has shown significant associations between personality (TCI) and neuropsychological tests assessing the recognition of different emotional valences and performance accuracy and response speed on executive functioning This supports the studies which report correlations between personality and neuropsychological outcomes in various clinical and community samples across cultural groups 14

15 Descriptive statistics for the seven TCI dimensions According to the TCI cut-off scores for a normal communitybased sample, the South African pilot sample scored in the following categories for the four temperament typologies: HA (harm avoidance) high; NS (novelty seeking) medium; RD (reward dependence) medium and P (persistence) - medium 15

16 The SAAS The SAAS Assimilation subscale correlated negatively with the performance accuracy on the SRAVEN The SAAS Integration subscale correlated positively with Mother's education The SAAS Rejection subscale correlated positively with response speed on a measure of attention and working memory (LNBC2) and the SRAVEN and negatively with the performance accuracy on the PCET 16

17 Significant correlations Accuracy on the emotional acuity task (PEAT40) and accuracy of responses on the task of abstraction and mental flexibility (SRAVEN) was positively correlated The present study has shown significant associations between personality (TCI) and neuropsychological tests assessing the recognition of different emotional valences and performance accuracy and response speed on executive functioning 17

18 Discussion and conclusion This supports the studies which report correlations between personality and neuropsychological outcomes in various clinical and community samples across cultural groups The results of this study indicate that for tasks that require a timed response (AIM) both for the component with and without working memory, reaction time correlated positively with harm avoidance and reward dependence in the presence of feedback on each response 18

19 Discussion and conclusion The results showing the significant correlation between novelty seeking and accuracy on the PEAT40 corroborates the findings on the relationship between impulsivity (a component of novelty seeking) and poor performance on complex tasks The SAAS also correlated significantly with various aspects of speed and accuracy on the emotions battery and the executive functioning and abstract reasoning battery 19

20 Discussion and conclusion This pilot investigation provides a useful platform for future research on the interactive effects of various variables on neuropsychological performance in a poorly investigated South African population Based on these preliminary results neuropsychological, temperament and acculturation data is being collected on a sample of 600 South Africans and a (hoped-for) sample of 400 Irish participants 20