Roles of Interpersonal Contact and Verbal Content in Abstract Thinking Deficits of Schizophrenics

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that the well-publicized loss of abstract ability by schizopl~renics may reflect their difficulties with interpersonal communication rather thac abstraction deficits per se. T o test this hypothesis, the performance of process schizophrenics, reactive schizophrenics, and normals were compared on four Proverbs tests which varied in the amount of interpersonal communication they entai!ed. Also, to test the hypothesis that the abstraction deficits reflect only difficulties with verbal stimuli, the performance of the three groups was compared on abstraction tests composed of nonverbal stimuli (the Block Design, Object Assembly, and Category tests) and verbal symbols (the Proverbs tests). The resslts suggest that abstract chinking deficits in schizophrenics are more prominent In casks composed of verbal stimuli. However, the results did not support the view that either autism or loss of ability to abstract in adult schizophrenics increases peculiarly with the amount of interpersonal interaction built into the task.

Abstract thinking deficit and autism in process and reactive schizophrenics.

“…None admitted to having been hospitalized previously for psychiatric reasons. All of the normals and 24 members of each schizophrenic group had been participants in an earlier study on proverbs performance, from which their data were taken (Watson, 1973).…”

“…The proverbs administered were the 36 items constituting Forms I, II, and III of the Gorham Proverbs (1956). As has been mentioned, the normals and 24 members of each schizophrenic group were taken from data generated in an earlier stud}- (Watson, 1973). The procedures used there called for administration of the Gorham items in four different presentation and response mode combinations varying in quantity of verbal examiner-teslce contact.…”

“…One fourth of the items were administered in each format. After the groups were matched for Vocabulary score, differences between process and reactive schizophrenics were unaffected by format (Watson, 1973). Therefore, the same procedures were employed here with the 48 schizophrenics added to the original pool of subjects to form the present samples.…”