Inconsistent Interpersonal Judgment in Thought-Disordered Schizophrenia

Abstract

Working from the premise that the clinical condition of thought-disordered schizophrenia is generally accompanied with a breakdown in interpersonal relationships, the current study examined the hypothesis that thought-disordered schizophrenics are more inconsistent in their judgment of significant others according to psychological or affective dimensions than non-thought-disordered individuals. In the current study 13 thought-disordered schizophrenic and 13 non-thought-disordered psychiatric outpatients were administered the Interpersonal Judgment Scale on a test-retest basis to attain an index of interpersonal judgment consistency. Results show that the schizophrenic subjects were significantly less consistent in their assignment of ratings on the Interpersonal Judgment Scale retest than the non-schizophrenic subjects. The relationship between inconsistent interpersonal judgment and the clinical concept of “loosened construing” is discussed.