Interpersonal competition, overinclusive thinking, and schizophrenia.

Abstract

This study is based on a doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, under the direction of Helen Cohen. Appreciation is further noted to Ira Salisbury for statistical guidance and to the other committee members-David Herschensen, Irving Millstein, and Robert Roth-for conceptual assistance. A version of : this paper was presented at the meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, Illinois, May 1969. Seymour Epstein, University of Massachusetts, allowed the use of his test for this study, 'Requests for reprints should be sent to Robert J. Craig, Chicago-Read Mental Health Center, 4200 N,

Neurocognitive and social cognitive correlates of formal thought disorder in schizophrenia patients

“…Whereas previous studies have found these indexes of thought disorder to be relatively distinct constructs (Craig, 1973;Harrow et al, 1997;Silverstein et al, 1993;Sponheim et al, 2003) in the current study they were strongly associated with each other and had generally similar neurocognitive correlates. We identified a subset of neurocognitive and social cognitive variables that together accounted for a substantial amount of variance in these aspects of formal thought disorder.…”

“…Patients with schizophrenia perform more poorly than nonpsychiatric controls on proverb interpretation tasks, with their responses containing more idiosyncratic and concrete thinking disturbances (Carter, 1986;Sponheim et al, 2003). While patients with schizophrenia have been found to make both idiosyncratic and concrete thinking errors, these two types of thinking disturbances have been found to be only weakly to moderately related (Craig, 1973;Silverstein et al, 1993;Sponheim et al, 2003). A third construct based on proverb tasks, correct abstraction, is related to concrete thinking, but involves not only the ability to abstract beyond the concrete elements of the proverb but also to correctly identify the consensually derived meaning of the proverb.…”

Impairment in abstract conceptualization in schizophrenia.

“…Goldstein's position, however, is commonly interpreted as including an explanatory construct concerning the psychological processes underlying cognitive pathology in schizophrenia. Numerous authors have referred to Goldstein's theory as involving the "loss" of abstraction or the abstract attitude (Buss & Lang, 1965;Craig, 1973;Downing, Shubrooks, & Ebert, 1966;Zimet & Fishman, 1970). Although it was never clearly delineated, the notion of loss seems to imply a basic cognitive incapacity on the part of schizophrenics and is consistently viewed as being incompatible with the broad class of interference theories of schizophrenic thought disorder.…”

“…Although it was never clearly delineated, the notion of loss seems to imply a basic cognitive incapacity on the part of schizophrenics and is consistently viewed as being incompatible with the broad class of interference theories of schizophrenic thought disorder. For example, Craig (1973) contrasted the views of Goldstein (1944) and Cameron (1939) in noting the theoretical importance of the queston of "whether schizophrenics have lost the ability to use abstraction ... or whether they are prevented from abstracting because of interfering processes (Craig, 1973, p. 9)."…”

Schizophrenic performance during interpersonal competitive conditions

“…Some previous studies of competition with schizophrenics have reported that schizophrenics perform at lower levels during, or immediately after, competitive conditions (Craig, 1973;Feuerstein, 1960;Myers, 1963). However, Craig (1971) reported that his sample of chronic schizophrenics performed better on a simple word-naming task under competitive conditions.…”