Cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganized features of schizotypal personality

While two factors are currently thought to underlie individual differences in schizotypal personality, three factors may best explain schizotypal traits. This study used confirmatory factor analysis to assess five competing models of schizotypal personality in the general population: null model, one-factor model, simple two-factor model, Kendler two-factor model, and three-factor model. The computer program LISREL was used to analyze Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire subscale scores that reflect the nine traits of schizotypal personality. The scores were obtained from (1) a sample of 822 undergraduates and (2) a replication sample of 102 subjects drawn from the community. Results indicate replicable support for a three-factor model reflecting cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganized latent factors. Low intercorrelations between the first two factors and the lack of fit by a one-factor model are partially inconsistent with recent notions that a single vulnerability dimension underlies schizotypal personality. It is argued that future investigations should assess the correlates of all three schizotypal factors in clinical and nonclinical samples in addition to the two more traditional factors. It is hypothesized that three factors of schizophrenic symptomatology observed in recent studies may reflect an exaggeration of three analogous factors found in the general population.