Sex-linked censure expectancies in process and reactive schizophrenics1

Abstract

Rodmck (1963) has recently presented a review^ of the now w^ell-known Duke studies on psychological deficit m schizophrenia Promment m this review are studies a£Bnnmg the importance of censure as a determmant of deficit in schizophremcs In addition, the severity of a schizophrenic's debility was found to be related to censure expenence with specific parents, censunous mothers havmg reared patients with worse premorbid histories than censunous fathers It was noted that schizophrenics with poor premorbid histones (process schizophrenics) had relatively greater difficulty m discrimination tasks when the stimulus figure used was that of a scoldmg mother (Dunn, 1954), whereas good premorbid schizophrenics (reactive schizophrenics) showed comparable difficulty with paternal censure stimuh (Kremik, 1959) Furthermore, process schizophrenics reported that their mothers were domineermg, rejectmg, and overprotective m contrast to the reports of reactive patients (Hams, 1957, Garmezy, Clarke, & Stockner, 1961 Confirmation was sought m a subsequent investigation with the actual parents of good and poor premorbid schizophrenics Mothers of the latter appeared more dommeermg and less yielding than their spouses, whereas parents of good premorbid patients demonstrated the opposite patterns Fathers of good premorbid patients were more dommeenng than fathers m control families (Farma, i960)In a review of research concerning deficit in schizophremcs, Buss and Lang (1965) have argued that the available data do not support a social censure interpretation They note that 1 The authors wish to express appreciation to Dr Irwm W Silverman for his help with design problems They also acknowledge an mdebtedness to staff members of the Lakeshore Psychiatnc Hospital who contnbuted to the project We are particularly grateful to members of the psychology service who did most of the data collection m the course of their regular dubes, and to the umt directors who made patients and nursing sta£F available to our needs

A retrospective analysis of the tats of children at risk who subsequently broke down

“…These conclusions support previous findings with adult schizophrenics [13,14,15] that indicate that poor premorbid, chronic schizophrenics show inaccurate perception of visual stimuli involving maternal censure. This inaccurate perception results from a psychological defense or "ideational gating mechanism" [16], that helps schizophrenics avoid these disturbing stimuli.…”

Need for approval and threatened negative evaluation as determinants of expressiveness in a projective test.

“…The results of this study indicate that the absence of M responses can be viewed as indicators of constriction and defensiveness. We are not arguing that M is the only or even the best determinant for inferring defensiveness, but that it has proven useful as a measure of defensiveness in this case as well as in previous studies (Lefcourt & Steffy, 1966). M responses apparently reflect the kind of participation and expressiveness which 5s might fear would reveal them more and consequently make them more vulnerable to an examiner's judgment.…”

“…In three recent investigations concerning productivity upon inkblot tests, the production of human movement (M) responses has been found to be a useful indicator of expressiveness (the opposite of defensiveness). In a study by Lefcourt and Steffy (1966) human movement responses were given more often to an examiner from whom there appeared to be less likelihood of censure. Since cognitive style investigators have reported that M responses are positively correlated with active visual scanning (Luborsky, Blinder, & Schimek, 1965), negatively correlated with defensiveness in the report of conflict stimuli (Kagan & Moss, 1962), and negatively related to repressive or denial type defenses (Gardner, Holzman, Klein, Linton, & Spence, 1959;Levine & Spivack, 1960), these writers assumed that M responses reflect greater participation, effort, and consequently, expressiveness or the opposite of defensiveness by 5s performing on inkblot tests.…”