Anxiety, arousal, and schizophrenia: A theoretical integration.

Abstract

The authors present an integration of theories concerned with the impact of anxiety, drive, and arousal on schizophrenic processes. They examine (a) anxiety reduction theories, (b) one-factor arousal theories, and (c) twofactor arousal theories. The evidence suggests that it is necessary to consider more than one arousal system to account for schizophrenic disorganization. It is proposed that the physiological correlate of the acute schizophrenic state is a divergence among arousal systems which were formerly in equilibrium. Proposals for future research are suggested in the following areas: (a) Arousal measures in groups and the same schizophrenics in acute, worsened, or recovered conditions; (b) tonic and limbic arousal and relationships, thought organization, premorbid history, diagnosis and clinical course; and (c) experimental measures of clinical anxiety and mood, attention, ego functions, and neurophysiological responses in normals, neurotics, and schizophrenics.

Psychological differentiation, arousal, and lipreading efficiency in hearing-impaired and normal children

“…It also was expected that differentiation would be related to skin conductance patterns such that the arousal patterns of field independent subjects would differ from those of field dependent subjects on (a) baseline levels (higher baseline in more field dependent subjects); (b) arousal pattern while lipreading from a film; and (c) change in arousal level between baseline and task conditions (greater change in more field independent subjects). These predicted arousal patterns are consistent with the empirical and theoretical work of Long (1974), Lapidus and Schmolling (1975), Rubens and Lapidus (1978), and Lovett and Lapidus (1985).…”

Peer-Professional First-Person Account: Schizophrenia From the Inside--Phenomenology and the Integration of Causes and Meanings

“…This was first focused on in professional research by Claridge 21 and Lapidus and Schmolling. 22 I noticed when I was 31, and by then a lecturer in psychology at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, that the-so to speak-''volume control'' on my emotions of anger, fear, and sex seemed to be as if turned up too high. I found I was forever trying to tranquilize myself.…”

A systems model of schizophrenic dysfunction

“…In a similar vein, Lapidus & Schmolling (1975) argued that schizophrenics suffer from a loss of reciprocity between certain arousal systems. Their presentation linked stress, defined as a threat to the integrity of the self, to anxiety, which may trigger a loss of modulation between arousal systems.…”