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Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)

In a recent article, Wundrack et al. (2018) put forward an elaborate and intriguing hypothesis on enhanced perspective-taking (Theory of Mind) ability as a consequence of higher personality state variability. While there is evidence in favor of this hypothesis, the clinical examples of bipolar disor...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jauk, Emanuel, Kanske, Philipp
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6631125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31162389
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence7020010
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author Jauk, Emanuel
Kanske, Philipp
author_facet Jauk, Emanuel
Kanske, Philipp
author_sort Jauk, Emanuel
collection PubMed
description In a recent article, Wundrack et al. (2018) put forward an elaborate and intriguing hypothesis on enhanced perspective-taking (Theory of Mind) ability as a consequence of higher personality state variability. While there is evidence in favor of this hypothesis, the clinical examples of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, as highlighted by the authors, demonstrate that a high state variability can also be accompanied by a lower perspective-taking ability (as commonly observed in these disorders). We suggest that only those state changes which are initiated on a voluntary basis and are accompanied by self-awareness go along with a higher perspective-taking ability. Introducing self-awareness as a moderating factor might help explain seemingly conflicting findings related to the hypothesis proposed in the target article. Moreover, we argue that the direction of causality proposed in the target article is not the only conceivable one, and perspective-taking ability could also be a cause, not just a consequence, of personality state variability. Finally, we provide suggestions on how these hypotheses could be tested in future studies.
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spelling pubmed-66311252019-08-19 Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018) Jauk, Emanuel Kanske, Philipp J Intell Commentary In a recent article, Wundrack et al. (2018) put forward an elaborate and intriguing hypothesis on enhanced perspective-taking (Theory of Mind) ability as a consequence of higher personality state variability. While there is evidence in favor of this hypothesis, the clinical examples of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, as highlighted by the authors, demonstrate that a high state variability can also be accompanied by a lower perspective-taking ability (as commonly observed in these disorders). We suggest that only those state changes which are initiated on a voluntary basis and are accompanied by self-awareness go along with a higher perspective-taking ability. Introducing self-awareness as a moderating factor might help explain seemingly conflicting findings related to the hypothesis proposed in the target article. Moreover, we argue that the direction of causality proposed in the target article is not the only conceivable one, and perspective-taking ability could also be a cause, not just a consequence, of personality state variability. Finally, we provide suggestions on how these hypotheses could be tested in future studies. MDPI 2019-04-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6631125/ /pubmed/31162389 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence7020010 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Commentary
Jauk, Emanuel
Kanske, Philipp
Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)
title Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)
title_full Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)
title_fullStr Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)
title_full_unstemmed Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)
title_short Perspective Change and Personality State Variability: An Argument for the Role of Self-Awareness and an Outlook on Bidirectionality (Commentary on Wundrack et al., 2018)
title_sort perspective change and personality state variability: an argument for the role of self-awareness and an outlook on bidirectionality (commentary on wundrack et al., 2018)
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6631125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31162389
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence7020010
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