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You Say Lemon, I Say Lemonade: The Impact Of Attitude When Dealing With Disorder

This is my Masters of Applied Science (M.A.Sc.) thesis, and it is quite large. Rather than post the thesis in its entirety on this page, the abstract alone is below.

• To download the entire main text (59 pages, excluding tables and appendices) in Portable Document Format (PDF) in order to print or save it click here or on the title above. To read PDF files you need Adobe Acrobat Reader (available for free).

• If you are interested in a copy of this study in its entirety (98 pages, including all appendices and tables), please contact Dr. McKinlay for a copy.

49 children (M age 12.6) with Tourette's syndrome (TS), their parents, and their non-affected siblings were interviewed to establish whether each viewed TS as unchangeable, uncontrollable, and beyond the responsibility of the individual with TS (i.e. whether they were entity theorists), or whether they saw their disorder as malleable, manageable, and as something the individual with TS should be accountable for (i.e. whether they were incremental theorists).  It was found that TS'ers with an entity view suffered from lower self-esteem, felt more helpless, and had worse sibling interactions than did those who held incremental views towards TS.  All family members agreed that TS'ers should be held less responsible for tics than for associated symptoms (anger/rage, impulsivity), but overall there was little agreement on attitude towards TS.  Disorder severity did not predict attitude towards the disorder, and one's own attitude towards the disorder predicted fathers' relationship satisfaction, but not mothers'.

A research project
presented to the University of Waterloo
in fulfillment of the
research project requirement for the degree of
Master of Applied Science
in
Psychology

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 1998
©Bruce Duncan McKinlay 1998

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