Sinnamon, Grant (2015) Social cognition, Affective Psychopathology and Disease-Specific Clinical Characteristics in Type 1 Diabetes. Coursework Masters thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
While global measures of intelligence have been widely accepted and used to evaluate cognitive function, there is an increasing recognition that domain-specific cognitive performance is more readily associated with specific functional deficits, neuromorphological and psychopathological sequelae, and clinical factors. In type 1 diabetes there is evidence for neuropsychological sequelae that manifests across multiple domains and can appear within a few years of diagnosis. The nature of social cognitive function in type 1 diabetes remains largely unelucidated with the topic being markedly underrepresented in the extant literature. However, when broader cognitive function impairments and neurological characteristics of type 1 diabetes are considered, there is substantive theoretical and extrapolated support for the likely presence of social cognition impairments also. This thesis is presented in two parts. Part one provides an exegetical review of the extant literature on cognitive function in type 1 diabetes, with the aim of establishing whether there was an evidence-based justification for further research into the nature and character of social cognitive performance in the disease. While there is a dearth of literature directly addressing this issue, there is evidence to support the position that further investigation is warranted. The second part of the thesis sets out to report on new research into social cognition in type 1 diabetes. The results reported in part two indicate that type 1 diabetes is associated with poorer social cognition, and that social cognition is associated with diabetes-specific clinical outcomes. As the presence of anxiety and depression are known to influence social cognition, their prevalence and correlation to social cognition was also assessed. The presence of an affective disorder was associated with reduced social cognition in no-type 1 diabetes participants, but not in type 1 diabetes, suggesting that other, as-yet-undetermined, factors may provide a stronger mediating effect on social cognitive function in individuals with the disease.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Coursework Masters) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Gavin Beccaria |
| Qualification: | Master of Psychology (Clinical) |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2025 23:56 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Aug 2025 23:56 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52761 |
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