La cognizione sociale in adolescenti con diagnosi di anoressia

uno studio sperimentale

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental study investigating the main components of social cognition in anorexic teenagers. The Theory of Mind is considered the main component of the broadest construct of Social Cognition, which in turn goes to influence social behavior.

The adolescent travels for a long time through a very complex identity crisis, a sort of no man's land, to conquer his/her own inner space and his/her place in society. Female adolescent anorexia expresses the very close relationship between disturbances in eating behaviour and the difficulty to accept the sexed body.

Ten girls affected by “anorexia nervosa”, aged between 11 and 18, were selected in the eating disorders child and adolescent neuropsychiatry unit, of the S. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital in Bologna and compared with a control group of the same age, gender and education. Both groups were given a set of psychodiagnostic tools to assess the role of social cognition and empathy. A Student's t-test was conducted to compare the performance of the two groups in social cognition measurements. The results showed that experimental group scored significantly lower for the affective components of empathy, thus highlighting a disorder related to perception of the emotional experience of the other, while retaining the ability to recognize emotions and understand the point of view of others.