Interpersonal affect and conformity behavior in schizophrenics.

A group of 28 schizophrenics Ss was equated with a group of 28 normal Ss on the factors of age and education. Each S was then tested as to the number of affectual relationships he produced on 4 Thematic Apperception Test cards. A measure of his conformity to social influence was obtained by a measure of his behavior in a group situation in which he was asked to compare the length of lines in an optical illusion study. An analysis of the data by means of multiple X2 design showed a significant interaction among all 3 factors: mental health, conformity, and affect. The factors of mental health and conformity interacted to a greater extent than did any other 2 factors taken together. Conformity and affect were more closely related to the factor of mental health than they were to each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of stimulus class on the problem-solving behavior of schizophrenics and normals.

"The ability of normal and schizophrenic Ss to deal with information involving human and nonhuman stimuli was compared. When Ss were matched on the basis of ability to utilize information about nonhuman stimuli, it was found that the problem-solving behavior of schizophrenics was significantly disrupted by the presence of human stimuli in the test situation. When the same populations were matched for ability to solve problems involving human stimuli, no significant difference was found in their capacity to deal with information involving nonhuman stimuli." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A within-subjects analysis of discrimination shift behavior in schizophrenics.

In 3 experiments, 24 20-68 yr old chronic schizophrenics, 12 20-66 yr old new admissions, 12 18-46 yr old predischarge patients, and 4 49-56 yr old lobotomized patients were trained on 1 of 4 discrimination-learning tasks, followed by either a reversal-intradimensional-extradimensional shift sequence or an extradimensional-extradimensional-reversal shift sequence. Shift means and subproblem-learning curves indicated that some attentional responding did occur, but that some Ss found it difficult to respond to familiar stimuli in a new way. No differences between patient subgroups were obtained, but individual differences in attention suggest meaningful subvarieties of patients. It is concluded that a within-Ss discrimination shift paradigm can provide useful information about attentional responding, perseverative responding, and ability to deal with familiar stimuli in a new way. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactions of chronic schizophrenics to symptomatic behavior in others.

Presented videotaped scenes in which actors depicted depressed, hallucinatory, agitated, and asymptomatic behavior to 60 chronic and acute schizophrenics and normal Ss. Ss were administered a questionnaire measuring attributed symptomatology and credibility, and affiliation desire. The overall results reveal that all Ss differentiated among the categories and perceived the actors as falling along a sick–well dimension. Chronic patients expressed a greater desire to affiliate, though this was related to the level of symptomatology exhibited by the actor. The credibility of all the actors was consistently high for chronic patients only. Suggestions for increasing the social behaviors of chronic patients are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of affective tone on the verbal behavior of process and reactive schizophrenics.

To test further the hypothesis that schizophrenics, described as "process" or "reactive," would demonstrate differential responsiveness to affective stimuli, Ss were shown slides projecting a verb (some affective-toned, some neutral) and 4 pronouns (him, she, they, I) and asked to make sentences using the verbs and 1 of the pronouns. It was hypothesized that avoidance of the pronoun "I" and retarded reaction time, when affectively-toned verbs were utilized, would distinguish the performance of the 2 groups: The results confirmed the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting language behavior from object sorting.

"Two dimensions of conceptulization, freedom and extensionality, were postulated; from these postulations, it was hypothesized that the type of conceptual behavior previously identified as concrete could be demonstrated to occur in two more or less mutually exclusive conceptual areas—hypostatic and autistatic. With the use of these constructs, two experimental groups were separated on the basis of consistent differences in concept formation in an object-sorting situation. The validity of this separation was tested by statistically evaluating the significance of predicted group differences in language behavior." Since significant differences were found in the direction predicted, it was concluded that "conceptual area might be a more useful concept for some purposes than conceptual level in that the latter term would not have supported such a prediction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social behavior of chronic schizophrenics in supervised and unsupervised work groups.

Small groups of chronic schizophrenics worked at policing a dormitory under 1 of 2 conditions of staff supervision: Maximal (active leadership) and Minimal (once the tasks were set patients were left to their own devices). Each group was composed of 5 patients. 3 groups worked under each supervisory condition. The groups were matched for age, length of hospitalization, education, and general verbal behavior of the patients. Measurements of performance and social behavior were daily over a 7-week period. The less supervised group showed signs of cohesiveness and lessened dependency on the staff member for decisions, with some indication of increased job performance. All groups showed decreased verbal interaction over time. Although the use of verbal communication was avoided whenever possible during the experimental period, the Ss showed signs of the formation of group structures and task-related roles were observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Praise and censure as motivating variables in the motor behavior and learning of schizophrenics.

Hullian assumptions regarding drive level were utilized to predict the performance of acute and chronic schizophrenics on learning tasks of varying complexity. Ss were exposed to 3 conditions of reinforcement: censure, praise, and neutral (neither censure nor praise), and faced with simple and complex learning tasks. Acute schizophrenics responded differently from the chronic Ss to the conditions of reinforcement. The performance of the acute group was facilitated on the 2nd task by the experience of being told they were wrong on the 1st; this was not so with the chronic schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two case studies of child-centered play therapy for children referred with highly disruptive behavior.

This article presents two cases with strong evidence measures in which child-centered play therapy (CCPT) was provided for children referred for highly disruptive behavior, including attention problems and aggression. Apparent progress was evidenced on the Teacher Report Form (TRF) of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). One client had a waiting period equal to his treatment period in which ratings were stable before change across his treatment period. The cases provide opportunities to consider how CCPT may work differently for similar behavioral difficulties in individual children. Researchers conceptualized each client's areas of difficulty and apparent treatment effects as an expert panel, aided by indications from the TRF. Individual discussions are provided regarding rationales for apparent progress and why CCPT seemed to have been effective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and avoidance behavior in schizophrenics in response to parental figures.

"Thematic productions in groups of Good and Poor premorbid schizophrenics were analyzed in terms of the relative amounts of anxiety and avoidance related to cards representing parent-child relationships. Three hypotheses were specific… . Poor premorbid patients were expected to produce more anxiety related imagery in response to the mother than the father figure, while Goods were expected to show the reverse effect; Poors were expected to be more avoidant in response to both parental figures; and the pattern of avoidance behavior between groups was expected to differ. The first two hypotheses were supported." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two studies examining the negative effect of self-efficacy on performance.

Although hundreds of studies have found a positive relationship between self-efficacy and performance, several studies have found a negative relationship when the analysis is done across time (repeated measures) rather than across individuals. W. T. Powers (1991) predicted this negative relationship based on perceptual control theory. Here, 2 studies are presented to (a) confirm the causal role of self-efficacy and (b) substantiate the explanation. In Study 1, self-efficacy was manipulated for 43 of 87 undergraduates on an analytic game. The manipulation was negatively related to performance on the next trial. In Study 2, 104 undergraduates played the analytic game and reported self-efficacy between each game and confidence in the degree to which they had assessed previous feedback. As expected, self-efficacy led to overconfidence and hence increased the likelihood of committing logic errors during the game. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsiveness of chronic schizophrenics to the social behavior of others in a meaningful task situation.

In this experiment 60 schizophrenics were given the task of stamping a number of greetings to accompany gifts. Instructions to hurray or to be cautious induced reliably differing rates of responding. In order to test the hypotheses concerning the social behavior of the schizophrenic, pairs of Ss were brought together to work in the same room—1 responding slowly and the other rapidly. As a consequence of being in the presence of another patient working at the same task both partners increased their rote of responding, indicating the effect of social facilitation. When the patients were given role instructions with relation to one another their rates of responding converged. Although these changes in behavior took place none of the 22 pairs of Ss (11 in co-working, 11 in role-related conditions) discussed the discrepancy or change in behavior. These results confirmed the hypothesis that schizophrenics will exhibit appropriate social motivation and responsiveness when behaving in a meaningful situation which does not depend on the use of language or complex cognitive skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roles of impression management in the interview, self-report, and cognitive behavior of schizophrenics.

Attempted to determine which types of behavior serve as manipulative impression-management tools among schizophrenics. 3 groups of male open-ward inpatient schizophrenics were either (a) implicitly threatened with a return to the closed ward, (b) threatened with discharge, or (c) given neutral instructions. Differential instructions did not affect interview or cognitive behavior indexes, but apparently did lead to manipulation on the MMPI Hypochondriasis and Psychasthenia scales. An attempt to determine which subgroups of schizophrenics tend to engage in such manipulatory behavior was unproductive. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early language behavior in Negro children and the testing of intelligence.

"Forty Negro children examined by a white examiner were found to have lowered language scores on third examination at two years of age. This was apparently due to lack of verbal responsiveness, rather than poor comprehension of language. This apparent early awareness of racial differences and loss of rapport has serious implications in the field of ethnic group psychology, particularly in the use of verbal items on intelligence testing." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two verbal aspects of language and thought in schizophrenia.

Replicated an experiment by A. Burstein (see PA, Vol. 36:3JQ55B) on the incorrect word choices of schizophrenics, with more rigorous control of the intelligence variable. It was hypothesized that 60 schizophrenics would exceed 50 normals of similar intelligence (as measured by the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale for Measuring Intellectual Impairment Vocabulary test) in choosing homonyms and antonyms when instructed to select synonyms for stimulus words. Results support the hypothesis, indicating that schizophrenics confuse cognitive criteria for determining similarity of word meaning with word sound and opposition of word meaning, regardless of intelligence level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of profane language and physical attractiveness on perceptions of counselor behavior.

Assigned 72 undergraduates to 1 of 8 experimental conditions of videotaped counseling sessions where they rated the counselor on a variety of dependent measures related to their impressions of counselor professional and personal attributes, likelihood of counseling for a variety of presenting problems, and their satisfaction. Multivariate analyses revealed that counselors using profanity were rated less favorably across all measures regardless of physical attractiveness. A significant multivariate interaction indicated that when profanity was present, female counselors were rated more positively than male counselors. Overall, physically attractive counselors, regardless of their sex or use of profanity, were judged to have more favorable attributes. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laboratory studies of behavior without awareness.

Behavior without awareness has been extensively studied in the laboratory. On the basis of a review of these studies, it is concluded that "the only type of behavior without awareness which can be easily reproduced on the basis of published reports is the classical type, in which S knows what he is supposed to be discriminating, but does not know that he is discriminating, because of the absence of the usual sensory experiences to which he is accustomed under the given type of stimulation." There is a need to establish experimental procedures under which the other types of conditions can be unequivocally demonstrated. 76-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two studies with the Psychiatric Rehabiliation Attitude Survey.

Evaluated the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Attitude Survey (PRAS) by the 1st author and A. Sklare-Lancaster (1981) in 2 experiments. In Exp I, reliability and validity data of the PRAS were assessed, using 37 vocational rehabilitation practitioners. Results indicate that test–retest reliability was high and that convergent and divergent validity were adequate compared with the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Exp II assessed the effect of a 4-wk field placement on the attitudes of 48 undergraduate rehabilitation psychology majors. There was a significant positive change in Ss' attitudes toward psychiatric rehabilitation, and their scores after field placement were significantly more positive than norms obtained from general-caseload rehabilitation practitioners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organization of language behavior and cognitive performance in chronic schizophrenia.

Reports data from 10 31-51 yr old chronic schizophrenic patients which relate formal categories of language behavior to performance on the Stroop Color-Word Interference Test--a task of verbal encoding under distracting and nondistracting conditions. The data show that the most simple type of language behavior is related to difficulty in verbal articulation and verbal encoding on the Stroop task. More complex language behavior, utilizing a conditional framework to express ideas, is related to increased interference from the distracting verbal text. Data are discussed in terms of attention regulation in chronic schizophrenia, and a speculation is offered regarding the role of attention in language development. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The performance of schizophrenics on social concepts.

"A hypothesis was derived from Cameron's view of schizophrenic thinking as a product of the social disarticulation of this group, as contrasted with Goldstein's interpretation of the defect in schizophrenic thought as the result of an impairment of the abstract attitude. The hypothesis was that schizophrenics would exhibit a greater decrement relative to normals on a test of social concepts than on tests of formal concepts." The data support this hypothesis. 22 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)