Interpersonal judgements of schizophrenics: a golden section study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psychopathology
• Social Cognition

Background:

• Normal individuals utilize positive adjectives at a specific ratio (golden section, ~62%) when categorizing acquaintances.
• This study investigates whether individuals with schizophrenia, specifically those with thought disorder (TD) and without (NTD), adhere to this golden section (GS) ratio in their evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the adjective categorization performance of thought-disordered and non-thought-disordered schizophrenics with normal subjects.
• To examine the application of the golden section ratio in evaluating both acquaintances and inanimate objects by schizophrenic individuals.

Main Methods:

• Subjects (TD and NTD schizophrenics, and controls) categorized themselves, acquaintances, and inanimate objects using bipolar adjective pairs.
• Participants generated evaluatively positive and negative figures (acquaintances and objects) for categorization.
• The frequency of positive adjective assignment was analyzed for each category and subject group.

Main Results:

• Overall, positive adjectives were assigned 61.0% of the time, closely aligning with the golden section ratio.
• No significant differences were observed between thought-disordered (TD) and non-thought-disordered (NTD) schizophrenic subjects.
• Acquaintances were rated more positively (62.0%) than inanimate objects (59.2%), a statistically significant difference.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the fundamental nature of the golden section ratio in interpersonal evaluations.
• Schizophrenic individuals, irrespective of thought disorder severity, appear to identify with and differentiate themselves from others similarly to normal individuals.
• The study suggests that core social cognitive processes related to evaluation remain intact in schizophrenia.