Dissociative Experiences in the General Population: A Factor Analysis

The 28-item Dissociative Experiences Scale was administered to a stratified cluster sample of 1,055 respondents in the general population of Winnipeg. Dissociative experiences were common in the sample and were not related to socioeconomic status, sex, education, religion, or place of birth, although they declined with age in both sexes. A principal components analysis identified three factors accounting for 47.1 percent of the combined variance of the scores. The first factor, absorption-imaginative involvement, is composed of common, benign experiences, such as missing part of a conversation and being able to ignore pain. The other two factors, activities of dissociated states and depersonalization-derealization, composed of less common experiences such as not recognizing friends or family members and not recognizing one's reflection in a mirror, may be powerful predictors of DSM-III-R dissociative disorders.