Diagnosis of Schizophrenia Is Made by a High Score on Deviating from Normal Emotional Indications - Research Paper Example

Abstract This study concerned individuals, who scored either on the low schizotypal or high schizotypal scale on the SPQ-B scale. This study particularly concerned two types of intelligence - emotional and spatial. The particular method is a two-way Anova. The conclusions of the study is that those who scored lower on the schizotypal scale scored higher on the emotional intelligence scale than those who scored higher on the schizotypal scale, yet lower on the spatial intelligence scale. On the flip side, those who scored higher on the schizotypal scale scored lower on the emotional intelligence scale than those who scored lower on the schizotypal scale. These findings were consistent with the theories put forth that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is made by a high score on deviating from normal emotional indications, as well as the theories that schizophrenics tend to have cognitive deficits with regards to context processing, and not as many cognitive deficits with regards to spatial processing. Introduction Schizophrenia is an illness that is characterized by a number of neurocognitive impairments, including impairments in attention, executive functioning, and verbal and non-verbal memory. (Gooding & Braun 261). Failure in logical reasoning is also a hallmark of schizophrenia (Tsanikos 1717), as is emotional disturbance (Yoon et al. 2008). Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is often associated with schizophrenia, and some theories state that schizophrenia and SPD share the same genetic liability, with environmental stressors being a leading cause of SPD turning into schizophrenia. (Olin et al. 93). Research has shown that schizophrenics tend to perform poorly on tasks that involve sustained attention. (Rawlings & Goldberg 2001) (Hoff & Kremen 2003). This would affect the participants, as the spatial reasoning portion of the study was timed, therefore it would be predicted that the higher on the schizotypal scale the participant is, the lower he or she would score on the spatial reasoning scale. Research has also established a positive correlation between schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder and emotional disturbance. (Yoon et al. 2008). Yoon's study of participants who scored high on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) found a positive correlation for depression, anxiety and anger, and a negative correlation for mood clarity and mood repair. (Yoon et al. 2008). This is backed up by other research. For instance, Kohler (2003) has shown that schizophrenics have difficulty reading facial emotions. (Kohler et. al 2003). This is significant, because it shows that schizophrenia's emotional deficits are global, in that the schizophrenic not only has problems modulating his or her own emotions, but he or she has problems with recognizing the proper emotions in others. This research leads us to confidently predict that the participants who scored higher on the SPQ would score lower on the emotional intelligence portion of the study. Still other research has shown that schizophrenics have issues with contextual information, and that this is a large reason why their cognition is diminished. (Hemsley 2005) (Cohen et al. 1999). What this would suggest is that perhaps those on the high end of the schizophrenic scale would score better than expected on the spatial reasoning portion of the study, as the spatial reasoning test does not rely upon contextual cues. An interesting study done by Gooding & Braun (2003) was conducted on participants who were divided into two distinct groups – those with negative schizotypy (ie. those reporting anhedonia) and those with positive schizotypy (ie those reporting cognitive/perceptual distortions). (Gooding & Braun 2003). What they found was that those with negative schizotypy has significantly poorer visuo-spatial skills than those with positive schizotypy. (Gooding & Braun 2003). Method A. Participants 76 undergraduate students were recruited from the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. These participants took part in the experiment for course credit. The sample included males and females. B. Design The design was a 2X2 factorial design. There were two levels of between-subject factors: high and low schizotypy and two levels of within-subject factor: emotional and spatial intelligence. C. Materials The participants were given the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, which is a self-report questionnaire that is made up of 74 true or false questions that “assess cognitive, perceptual, affective and interpersonal features consistent with the symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder.”. (Yoon et al. 2008). Two types of online intelligence tests were also used, the test found at www.helpself.com/iq-test.htm, which measures emotional intelligence, and the test found at www.queendom.com/queendom_tests/transfer, which measures spatial intelligence. D. Procedure The participants were given the above tests in the following order: the spatial intelligence test, with a time limit of 1 minute 45 seconds; then the SPQ-B, then the emotional intelligence tests. The latter two did not have a time limit. The participants were then divided into two groups, based upon their scores on the SPQ. Those who scored high (above the mean) on the schizotypal scale were put into the high group, while those who scored low (below the mean) on the schizotypal scale were put into the low group. E. Results In looking at the within subjects effects and the within subjects contrasts, which are identical numbers, the most significant numbers are the F, sig and partial eta squared. Because the sig is 0, therefore p Read More