The specificity of schizophrenic thought disorder: a replication and extension of previous findings

Eight thought-disordered schizophrenics, eight non-thought-disordered schizophrenics and eight normal subjects each completed four repertory grids, formed by combinations of two types of construct, psychological and physical, and two types of element, photographs and known people. The finding of McPherson & Buckley (1970) that thought-disordered schizophrenics are relatively less disordered when using physical constructs than when using psychological constructs was replicated. Further, this specificity of schizophrenic thought disorder was extended from grids employing photographs of strangers to grids employing known people, thus disconfirming an explanation of schizophrenic grid performance (Williams, 1971) in terms of 'cue insensitivity'.