Subjects reported on how often 22 different bad things had happened to
themselves and also completed a measure of dissociative experiences.
The two sexes did not differ in their scores on either of the two meas
ures. Four items on the bad things measure had to do with sexual abuse
by family and by non-family members and with physical abuse by family
and by non-family members. The correlation between negative experienc
es and dissociation was approx. 0.40 for the subjects of each sex, and
remained at the same level when the scores on the four abuse items we
re excluded. These results suggest that dissociation is linked with a
general tendency to recall and report negative experiences rather than
solely with having experienced major traumatic events. Claims of havi
ng experienced traumatic events and dissociation may share a common un
derlying basis in neuroticism.