An experimental study of the double bind hypothesis.

The primary aim of the study was to assess whether persons highly conversant with the double bind concept could reliably identify such communication in letters, and, if so, whether its presence or absence was related to the fact of the letter having been written by the parent of a schizophrenic or nonschizophrenic person. The interjudge correlations of the double bind judges were very low, indicating that their judgments regarding presence or absence of double bind communication were not reliable. Other judges achieved statistically significant interjudge reliability and were able to differentiate between letters written by parents of patients and a comparison group. It was concluded from these results that a more critical appraisal of the double bind concept is indicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)