Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

of the plaintiff’s vocational history is particularly

important, along with an assessment of the place of the

job in the person’s life. Collateral interviews are espe-

cially important in these evaluations because family

members and friends may provide information con-

cerning changes in self-esteem and lifestyle that may

not be obvious to the plaintiff.

William E. Foote

See alsoAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA); Forensic

Assessment; Personal Injury and Emotional Distress;

Sexual Harassment

Further Readings

Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2.

Retrieved June 18, 2007, from

http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html

Foote, W. E. (2003). Forensic evaluation in Americans with

Disabilities Act cases. In I. B. Weiner (Series Ed.) &

A. D. Goldstein (Vol. Ed.),Handbook of Psychology: Vol. 11.

Forensic Psychology(pp. 279–300). New York: Wiley.

Foote, W. E., & Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2005). Evaluating

sexual harassment: Psychological, social, and legal

considerations in forensic examinations. Washington, DC:

American Psychological Association Press.

Parry, J. W. (1996). Regulation, litigation and dispute

resolution under the Americans with Disabilities Act: A

practitioner’s guide to implementation. Washington, DC:

American Bar Association Commission on Mental and

Physical Disability Law.

DISSOCIATIVEIDENTITYDISORDER

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly

known as multiple-personality disorder, is one of the

more controversial diagnoses in the Diagnostic and

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(fourth edi-

tion; DSM-IV), with there being considerable dis-

agreement over the validity and etiology of the

disorder. Amnesia between identities is central to a

diagnosis of DID. While explicit memory tests often

result in amnesic responding in DID patients, more

objective memory tests often fail to corroborate self-

reports of amnesia between identities. Two perspec-

tives dominate the debate on the cause of DID, with

the traditional view proposing that DID manifests

as a mechanism for coping with childhood trauma and

an alternative sociocognitive perspective suggesting

that DID is a response to social demands, with an

iatrogenic etiology. The rise in prevalence rates of

DID has led to the increased importance of this diag-

nosis in the court of law. Given the controversy sur-

rounding the validity of the disorder, care should be

taken when considering subjective claims of amnesia,

as these self-reports are not guaranteed to be substan-

tiated by objective laboratory evidence.

The Diagnosis of DID

To meet the criteria for a DSM-IVdiagnosis of DID,

two or more distinct identities must be present who

recurrently take control of an individual’s behavior.

These alter identities may have distinct personal his-

tories, names, and abilities (e.g., computer profi-

ciency, literacy) and can even vary in professed sex

and age. This fractionation of identity must also be

accompanied by an inability to recall important

personal information, beyond that of ordinary

forgetfulness. This memory loss, termed inter-identity

amnesia, is thought to result from the compartmental-

ization of memory within identities and can manifest

in many ways, such as gaps in time or the discovery of

unfamiliar items in one’s possession.

The properties of inter-identity amnesia can vary.

In a one-way amnesia, communication is asymmetri-

cal, as one identity may be omniscient for the experi-

ences of the other but not vice versa. In a two-way

amnesia, both identities are unaware of each other’s

experiences, memories, and sometimes even exis-

tence. A diagnosis of DID cannot be made if the

symptoms are due to substance use or a general med-

ical condition. DID is diagnosed more commonly in

females than males (from three to nine times more

often) and is often diagnosed in individuals with a his-

tory of other psychiatric diagnoses. Symptom onset

varies, although many individuals report dissociative

symptoms dating back to as early as childhood.

As with most other diagnoses, clinicians rely on

the self-report of patients when diagnosing DID. This

is typically done using either unstructured questioning

or a structured interview such as the Structured

Clinical Interview for DSM-IVDissociative Disorders

(SCID–D). The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES)

is another common self-report measure of dissociative

symptoms, which requires individuals to rate their

symptoms on a Likert-type scale, although the DES

cannot confirm the diagnosis of DID.

Dissociative Identity Disorder——— 227

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