Effects of Cogniphobia on invalid clinical examinations

Ahlers, Maja (2022) Effects of Cogniphobia on invalid clinical examinations. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Objectives: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has a high prevalence rate of noncredible symptom reports, which might be due to external incentives or intraindividual factors. However, a new concept to explain non-credibility might be cogniphobia, the avoidance of mental effort out of fear to worsen one's cognitive symptoms. This study aimed to explore whether cogniphobia is an explanation for noncredible symptom reports in ADHD evaluation and whether migraine patients show higher cogniphobia scores. Methods: A self- report measure was completed by 218 participants drawn from the local community, including the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS) to measure ADHD symptoms, and a cogniphobia scale. The CAARS included symptom validity tests such as the Inconsistency Index (INC) to detect random responding, the Infrequency Index (CII) and the ADHD credibility index (ACI) to detect noncredible responding. Results: People with high cogniphobia scores were more likely to respond randomly on the CAARS, measured with the INC, and to respond noncredible measured by the CII and ACI. The high cogniphobia group was more likely to show higher dangerousness and avoidance scores than the low cogniphobia group. Inattention was a significant predictor of cogniphobia. Higher cogniphobia scores were found for migraine patients, but with a small effect. Conclusion: Cogniphobia could be a source of inconsistent responding and non-credible symptom reports of ADHD. Measures to detect random and noncredible responses should be included when patients indicate cogniphobic coping styles. Cogniphobia might not solely be expressed as symptom overreport, but as a combination of exaggeration, implausible combination of symptoms measured by ACI, and random responding detected by INC. Keywords: Cogniphobia; ADHD; Symptom validity; Migraine

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Supervisor name:	A.B.M., A.B.M.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	None [Bachelor Psychology]
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2022 07:42
Last Modified:	24 Jun 2022 07:42
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/592

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