Overinclusive thinking and delusions in schizophrenic patients.

15 schizophrenics with paranoid delusions, 15 schizophrenics with no delusions, and a control group of 15 nonschizophrenic hospitalized patients were given the Benjamin Proverbs test, the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale, and 3 of Babcock's psychomotor speed tests. As predicted, there was a significant relationship between the presence or absence of delusions, and overinclusive thinking, as assessed by the average number of words needed to explain the proverbs and 2 time scores. Overinclusive patients tend to have paranoid delusions. There was no significant relationship between retardation, as assessed by the Babcock tests, and the presence of delusions. This finding complements an earlier finding of Harris and Metcalfe (see 32: 719) that slowness in schizophrenic patients is specifically associated with inappropriate affect and a poor prognosis, and Payne's (see 37: 5499) finding that a group of chronic schizophrenics was not overinclusive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotic patterns of the concept of the object on the Rorschach test.

An object concept scoring system developed by S. Blatt et al (see record 1976-29990-001) was applied to Rorschach tests obtained from 67 psychotic and 18 nonpsychotic patients aged 18–55 yrs. The psychotics were diagnosed across 3 dimensions: schizophrenia, premorbid functioning, and paranoia. Psychotics, compared to nonpsychotics, showed higher levels of articulation and integration of the concept of the object on inaccurately perceived (F–) responses. Furthermore, schizophrenics showed more of the psychotic pattern than did nonschizophrenic psychotics. No major differences were found for good vs poor premorbid psychotics or paranoid vs nonparanoid schizophrenics. Results are interpreted as evidence supporting the explanation that the psychotic individual cannot effectively utilize existing ego potential for higher levels of integrated and organized behavior. Instead, the greater ego resources are absorbed in the unrealistic fantasy and symptomatic behavior that interfere with rather than facilitate effective adaptation. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life events and two-year outcome in schizophrenia.

Tested the hypothesis that higher aggregate levels of objective life-events stress before a 1st-time psychiatric admission for schizophrenia will relate to better outcome. Ss were 15–55 yr old schizophrenics classified by any 1 of 3 methods from a larger investigation of 1st-admission inpatients. Hospitalization and 2-yr follow-up assessments were made with structured, standardized interview schedules. 31 Schneiderian, 39 New Haven Index, and 41 DSM-II schizophrenics were then bifurcated into high- and low-event groups. The test for different group outcomes was made with a MANOVA of 5 measures of outcome functioning. Where the MANOVAs were significant, t tests were employed to determine group differences in specific outcome areas. Findings support the hypothesis for Schneiderian and New Haven diagnostic criteria. Further analyses suggested that results were not attributable to demographic factors, premorbid status, severity of pathology at admission, or interim stress levels and probably were not exclusively the effect of precipitating life events shortly before hospitalization. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of verbal intelligence in the field approach of selected groups of psychotics.

Assessed field dependence-independence in selected groups of 72 hallucinating and nonhallucinating psychotics, controlling for the effect of verbal intelligence. Controls (N = 24) were less field dependent than patient groups; however, differences in the field approach of nonhallucinating (delusional) and hallucinating psychotics were not significant. Results suggest that previously reported differences in field dependence-independence of selected groups of schizophrenics were possibly due to inadequate control of verbal intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size constancy in psychopathology.

Size-constancy judgments were made by 21 schizophrenics, 17 psychotically depressed, 16 hysterical character disordered patients, and 35 normal controls. Judgments were obtained for a neutral stimulus, a circle of light, under 4 experimental conditions which varied the number of distance cues available to S. The psychotic patients were more constant in all experimental conditions; all groups exhibited increasing constancy with increasing distance cues. Anchor effects were less for the controls and most marked in the schizophrenics and hysterical character disorders when distance cues were minimal. Results are interpreted as a function of an integrative defect in perception relating to psychosis rather than specific to schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that the psychotics are more sensitive to the information available whether or not such information leads to veridical perception. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term visual memory in schizophrenics.

Hypothesized that the deficit of poor premorbid schizophrenics in backward masking is due to interference in short-term visual memory (STVM) because of the tendency to process a pattern mask as if it were a cognitive mask. The hypothesis was tested in a backward-masking picture-recognition paradigm, using data from 32 male psychiatric patients (aged 18–55 yrs) and 14 hospital personnel. The 12 good premorbid schizophrenics, 7 nonschizophrenic psychotics, and normal Ss all showed differential pattern- and cognitive-mask performance. The performances of 13 poor premorbids were equivalent on both mask types. Findings corroborate the hypothesis. It is suggested that integration of stimuli in poor premorbids' sensory storage was intact and that the disruption in processing caused by a pattern mask at 200–300 msec was due to an interference in STVM. It is concluded that the hypothesis of a deficit in perceptual organization best accounts for the apparent disruptions in poor premorbids' STVM. (70 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hospitalization and Premorbid Characteristics in Withdrawn and Active Schizophrenics.

Hospitalization and premorbid data were collected on withdrawn and active schizophrenics in an attempt to explore basic differences between these types of patients. Results showed that withdrawns are first hospitalized at an earlier age, stay in the hospital longer each time they are admitted, spend more of their lives in psychiatric facilities, and have a higher incidence of delusions and hallucinations than actives. These data seem to reflect basic differences beyond the schizophrenic episode since withdrawns were also found to have a poorer overall premorbid adjustment, are less likely to be married, have fewer estimated friends between the ages of 6 and 18, and have fewer estimated high school activities than actives. Finally, implications for future research and high-risk studies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delusional thinking and cognitive organization in schizophrenia.

A delusion can be conceptualized as a form of cognitive reorganization; according to this interpretation a delusion serves to integrate into a meaningful and acceptable whole data which otherwise would be anxiety provoking. On the assumption that the utilization of delusions is representative of a generalized cognitive technique for dealing with ambiguous inputs it was hypothesized that delusional schizophrenics should manifest a stronger tendency to integrate ambiguous stimuli in a laboratory situation than nondelusional schizophrenics. To test the hypothesis 24 delusional and 25 nondelusional schizophrenics were compared on the McGill Closure Test. The results supported the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proprioception and schizophrenia: a replication study with nonschizophrenic patient controls

In 3 experiments, weight discrimination, arm flexion discrimination, and a test of kinesthetic figural aftereffects were used to evaluate the proprioceptive functioning of 40 schizophrenic patients, 30 nonschizophrenic (psychotic and nonpsychotic) patients, and 10 normals. The additional variables of premorbid functioning and paranoia were also examined. Previous findings of a subtle proprioceptive deficit for schizophrenics in comparison with normals were replicated for nonparanoid schizophrenics of a weight-discrimination procedure and poor premorbid schizophrenics on an arm-flexion task. The kinesthetic-figural-aftereffects schizophrenic deficit previously reported by the author and E. Ebner (see record 1974-23243-001) was not replicated. Deficits in proprioception also were found for all nonschizophrenic patient groups on the weight-discrimination procedure and for poor premorbid nonschizophrenic psychotics and neurotics on the arm-flexion task. It is concluded that a deficit in proprioception is not unique to schizophrenia but appears to be related to chronicity and severity of pathology in both schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic hospitalized patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of biased test responses to psychopathology.

Groups of Ss differing in personality factors are given the Perceptual Reaction Test, a test which requires only an affective response to abstract designs, to determine if there is a difference in response set characteristic of personality. Scale development and validation employs 1,700 normal persons and 546 psychiatric patients and the reliability study utilizes an additional 159 persons. "Differences in response set were discovered between the groups from the general population and such clinical groups as heterogeneous abnormals, psychotics, and schizophrenics for both males and females. For males alone, differences in the response set were discovered between normals, and a group of males suffering from character disorders, and between male psychotics and males with character disorders." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information Processing Deficits in Remitted Schizophrenics.

This study investigated early stages of information processing in schizophrenia as assessed by a backward-masking paradigm. Ten remitted process schizophrenics and 10 matched normal controls were tested. Subjects were matched for both age and intelligence. All schizophrenics met the criteria of an early onset, poor premorbid adjustment, evidence of formal thought disorder (e.g., language disturbance) and had previously exhibited hallucinations or delusions. Stimuli were tachistoscopically exposed under two masking conditions, two stimulus durations, and five masking latencies (stimulus onset asynchronies) over four 200-trial sessions, for a total of 800 trials. A two-alternative forced-choice recognition of a T or A served as the dependent measure. Results indicated that whereas schizophrenics were more impaired than normals under both masking conditions, they were particularly impaired under the pattern mask condition. These results add support to the growing evidence of an early information processing disturbance in schizophrenia that is trait dependent and is not an artifact of nonspecific pathological disturbance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical psychopathologic symptoms in neuropsychologically impaired and intact schizophrenics.

Examined the differential prevalence of 10 major dimensions of psychotic and affective signs (e.g., auditory hallucinations, delusions of control, excitement/agitation, catatonic and bizarre behavior) and symptoms in 18 neuropsychologically impaired and 30 neuropsychologically intact schizophrenics who were diagnosed under Research Diagnostic Criteria. Assessments were based on the Present State Examination and on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery. Results show that the neuropsychologically impaired Ss had a lower incidence of delusions of reference and persecution and a diminished capacity for insight compared to neuropsychologically unimpaired Ss. Findings are discussed in terms of a frontal lobe dysfunction hypothesis of schizophrenic psychopathology. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sentence verification and delusions: a content-specific deficit

BACKGROUND: A sentence verification task was developed to investigate semantic memory in schizophrenia. METHODS: The test consisted of three types of sentence (true, unlikely and nonsense) and seven different types of content (neutral, persecutory, grandiose, political, religious, relationships and somatic) representing common delusional themes present in schizophrenic patients. Sixty-three schizophrenic patients and 66 matched control subjects were asked to make true/false judgements to 143 sentences. RESULTS: Overall accuracy was similar across the two groups; sentences with some emotional themes and sentences of the unlikely type produced the most violations. Significant differences between the two subject groups were found specifically on nonsense sentences with persecutory and religious themes. Patients made significantly more incorrect responses (acceptance) to nonsense sentences that had an emotional content congruent with their delusional beliefs, past or present, and also on unlikely sentences (incorrect rejections) whose content was not congruent with their delusions. Further analysis of response bias in the patients showed, overall, that there were more incorrect rejections (a reflection of the large number of unlikely sentence errors) and more incorrect responses to sentences congruent with patients delusions. Furthermore, analysis of those patients currently experiencing delusions revealed more incorrect responses to sentences congruent with their delusional ideas compared with patients not currently deluded. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are indicative of cognitive bias in schizophrenia towards certain emotional themes that may underlie illogical semantic connections and delusions.     

Expectancies, mood, and performance of depressed and nondepressed psychiatric inpatients on chance and skill tasks.

The learned helplessness model of depression predicts that, compared with nondepressed patients, depressed patients will demonstrate psychomotor deficits, provide lower subjective evaluations of their performance, and perceive reinforcement in skill tasks as more response independent. These predictions were tested in 32 depressed (mean age 35 yrs) and 32 nondepressed (mean age 38 yrs) psychiatric inpatients, who had been administered the Quick Test and the Beck Depression Inventory. Ss performed card- and peg-sorting tasks in which measures of performance, ratings of mood and expectancy of success, and subjective evaluations of performance were obtained under chance and skill reinforcement conditions. Although some support was obtained for the prediction that depressives provide lower evaluations of their performance than nondepressives, the other predictions were not supported. Comparisons between depressed and nondepressed schizophrenics indicate that the mood of depressed schizophrenics was especially sensitive to task outcome for both skill and chance conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mortality in former and new Germany 1991

The study aimed at characterization of suicidal behavior of adolescent schizophrenics early at the disease onset. Suicidal actions of such patients often simulate the behavior of depressed, psychopathic subjects, being different from those in that suicidal attempts of schizophrenics are not provoked by psychogenic factors, but by misunderstanding of reality and changes in the mood; schizophrenics usually have several suicidal attempts in the past, have true desire to die or no such a desire against somatically severe suicides, they are schizoid by personality.     

Appraisal and goal processes as predictors of psychological well-being in bereaved caregivers.

Narratives of 30 caregivers were scored for appraisals and coping responses following the death of their partners from AIDS. Appraisals were identified as valenced beliefs, emotions, and goal outcomes, whereas coping responses included goals and plans of action. The proportion of positive appraisals predicted long-term goals and plans and psychological well-being at both bereavement and 12 months later. Positive appraisals were correlated with positive morale and positive states of mind. The latter were negatively correlated with partner-centered, short-term plans. Positive appraisals were negatively correlated with depressive mood. Caregivers, who reported proportionately more positive appraisals during caregiving and after the loss of their partner, were more likely to have future- and self-oriented goals and plans and to demonstrate positive well-being at bereavement and better recovery 12 months later than were those who reported more negative appraisals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative accuracy of automated MMPI narratives generated from adult norm and adolescent norm profiles.

Studied the effect of patient and interpretive narrative characteristics on the judged accuracy of pairs of automated narratives generated by 2 types of norms using MMPI protocols of 100 adolescent psychiatric patients. 25 raters (clinicians and advanced psychiatry residents) were naive as to which narrative was generated by which set of norms and received computer printouts in which all nonnarrative portions (scale scores, critical items, clinical profile) were omitted. Narratives generated from adolescent norm profiles were rated as significantly more accurate than narratives generated from adult norm profiles. Only 1 variable (narrative length) was related to judged accuracy within a norm group, though 2 variables (age and sex) affected the relative accuracy of narrative pairs. Narratives generated from adolescent norms were rated as significantly more accurate for younger patients and for females than were those generated from adult norms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Borderline diagnosis in projective assessment.

Reviews 36 publications on projective testing of borderlines to determine the extent to which the disorder can be defined. The data show that although borderlines can be distinguished as a group from neurotics and schizophrenics, the differences are small, and there is considerable overlap among these diagnostic groups. No specific psychological mechanisms have been identified that typify borderlines and are not also found among neurotics, schizophrenics, or both. These findings imply that borderline pathology cannot be exclusively attributed to trauma from any particular period of development and that no specifically focused therapeutic approach is appropriate for most borderlines. Theoretical and technical approaches helpful for borderlines are also helpful for at least some neurotics and psychotics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proverb word counts as a measure of overinclusiveness in delusional schizophrenics.

A partial replication was conducted of Payne's (1964) report concerning the relationship between delusions and overinclusive thinking as measured by proverbs word counts. Word counts were made of Gorham Proverbs Test responses given by age and intelligence-matched groups of 21 delusional schizophrenics, 21 nondelusional schizophrenics, and 21 nonschizophrenic, nondelusional psychiatric in-patients. 23 paranoid, 23 nonparanoid, and 23 nonschizophrenic control Ss, similarly matched, from the same population, were also compared. No significant differences in proverb word counts were found among the groups. Although the possibility of increased irrelevant side remarks could not be excluded, paranoid or delusional schizophrenics do not produce higher proverb relevant word counts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)