Interpersonal interactions in individuals with schizophrenia: individual differences among patients and their...

We examined 60 face-to-face ten-minute interactions between individuals with schizophrenia and college students. We studied patient responses to the students and student responses to the patients. Following each interaction, participants provided reports of their current mood and how well they liked their interaction partner. The interactions were audio- and video-taped, which allowed us to measure the frequency of patient and student smiles and eye contact, patient strangeness, and the pleasantness of the conversational content. We found individual differences among patients in the degree to which they were liked by students. Patient strangeness was associated with interaction partner negative responses to patients. In addition, the pleasantness of the conversational content was associated with how well patient and student were liked by one another. Sixteen percent of the variance in patient smiling was accounted for by the particular student with whom the patient interacted. The results of this study highlight the importance of attending to both intrapersonal and interactional factors for understanding patient interpersonal functioning.