Psychiatry Research
Volume 109, Issue 2 , Pages 149-159, 15 March 2002

Social perception in schizophrenia: the role of context

  • David L. Penn

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3270, Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1-919-843-7514; fax: +1-919-962-2537
    • ,
  • Mark Ritchie

      Affiliations

    • 16450 Los Gatos Blvd., Ste. 212, Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA
    • ,
  • Jennifer Francis

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5501, USA
    • ,
  • Dennis Combs

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5501, USA
    • ,
  • James Martin

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, 236 Audubon Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5501, USA

Received 4 June 2001; received in revised form 2 January 2002; accepted 14 January 2002.

Abstract 

The purpose of this study was to examine social context processing in persons with schizophrenia. A secondary goal was to examine the ecological validity of these measures (i.e. how they relate to social behavior in the treatment setting). The performance of 35 persons with DSM-IV diagnosed schizophrenia and/or schizoaffective disorder was compared to a non-clinical control sample of 46 individuals on a battery of social perceptual tasks that require social context processing. In addition, the relationship between social context processing and ward behavior (as measured with the Nurse's Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation) was examined for the clinical sample only. The results showed that the group with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder was impaired on all tasks relative to the control group and showed little evidence of utilizing available contextual information. Task performance for the group with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder was relatively independent of symptoms, but was related to social functioning in the treatment setting. Implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords:  Social cognition, Social behavior, Symptoms

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PII: S0165-1781(02)00004-5

Psychiatry Research
Volume 109, Issue 2 , Pages 149-159, 15 March 2002

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