DISSOCIATIVE FUNCTIONING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO STATE AND TRAIT GUILT IN THE NONCLINICAL POPULATION

The present aim was;to extend recent work on the relationship between dissociation and guilt in the non-clinical population. The Questionnai re of Experiences of Dissociation (Riley, 1988; QED) and the Guilt Inv entory (Kugler & Jones, 1992a), which measures trait and state guilt, were administered to 259 Australian university students. Results indic ated that trait guilt was a significant predictor of dissociative expe rience. However, no relationship was found between dissociation and st ate guilt. The results extend Irwin's (in press) findings and are disc ussed in terms of the trauma-based model of dissociation and the inter personal theory of guilt. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.