Positive schizotypy, maladaptive openness, and openness facets.

Abstract

Positive schizotypy includes magical beliefs and unusual perceptual experiences and is highly correlated with the cognitive-perceptual symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder. Increased openness to experience is associated with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia, and it has been commonly thought that positive schizotypy might also be related to increased openness. However, much previous research has failed to identify a sizable association between positive schizotypy and openness. The current research examined whether associations between positive schizotypy and openness might be higher (a) when using measures that more effectively assess the maladaptively high end of openness and (b) for distinct aspects of openness. Participants (n ϭ 672) completed two measures of openness, the Big Five Aspects Scale (BFAS) and Experiential Permeability Index (EPI). We found that associations between positive schizotypy and BFAS-Open were small. However, in item response theory analyses, there was evidence that one facet of the EPI Oddity subscale highly associated with BFAS-Open was more sensitive to the maladaptively high end of openness than BFAS-Open. Further, positive schizotypy was more strongly associated with this EPI facet than with BFAS-Open. In addition, positive schizotypy was especially associated with a second facet of the EPI Oddity subscale. Hence, our study provides further evidence that associations between positive schizotypy and openness increase when assessing the maladaptively high end of openness and that positive schizotypy is most highly associated with particular facets of openness.

Mapping a hierarchical dimensional structure of high experiential permeability: A bass-ackward approach to linking positive schizotypy and openness to experience.

“…These descriptions are very much related to the concept of oddity within STAP and high EP, and highlights that when using a measure such as the FFMRF that attempts to tap into possibly maladaptive extremes of personality functioning, one can see overlap between openness and components related to STAP. These findings, in addition to the relations between openness and oddity components within the Bass-Ackward analyses, are congruent with previous findings that have investigated the relationship between finer-grained traits related to STAP and openness to experience (Kemp et al, 2020, 2021; Straub & Kerns, 2021; Suzuki et al, 2017). Overall, the differences in patterns of correlations among the two STAP components once again highlight the heterogeneity of schizotypal constructs and importance of examining multifaceted constructs at the lowest level possible.…”

“…In addition, numerous items measuring imagination, daydreaming, and aesthetics interests had significant cross-loadings across Openness to Aesthetics (4.4), Mystical Beliefs/Experiences (4.2), and Oddity (4.3), with the magnitude of the loadings varying only based on level of maladaptivity. These cross-loadings also support theories and research that have argued that of the STAP components, eccentricity and oddity tend to have the strongest overlap with openness, particularly related to fantasy and imagination (Crego & Widiger, 2017), and this is strengthened with increasing levels of maladaptivity (Haigler & Widiger, 2001; Straub & Kerns, 2021).…”

“…Intellect (Component 2.2) was positively correlated with Oddity (3.3), however, suggesting that there are some shared components between these two aspects. This is likely their associations with openness to experience, as previous research has shown that although the intellect aspect alone does not typically correlate with STAP or correlates negatively (DeYoung et al, 2012), a composite intellect/openness score might still show small associations with STAP, though smaller than for openness alone (Straub & Kerns, 2021). These findings further highlight that aspects intellect and openness do share variance with one another, similar to previous research investigating this relationship (DeYoung et al, 2007), but they do differentially relate to other components, such as STAP.…”

“…Similarly, another issue that arises when investigating the relationship between openness and STAP is the inability of most measures of general personality to capture maladaptive openness to experience. In fact, studies that have examined adaptive and maladaptive levels of openness to experience with positive symptoms of schizotypy have found that the relationship between these two constructs not only increase when assessing specific components of openness to experience but further increase when using measures of maladaptive openness (Kemp et al, 2020(Kemp et al, , 2021Straub & Kerns, 2021).…”

Imagination as a Facet of Openness/Intellect: A New Scale Differentiating Experiential Simulation and Conceptual Innovation

“…We expected to find that all three DFIS scores would be strongly correlated with total Openness/Intellect scores, but that Conceptual Innovation would correlate more strongly with the Intellect aspect (and its constituent facets) than with Openness, whereas Experiential Simulation would correlate more strongly with the Openness aspect (and its constituent facets) than with Intellect. Further, given evidence that positive schizotypy or psychoticism may be understood as a pathological variant of Openness specifically (and not Intellect) (DeYoung et al, 2012(DeYoung et al, , 2016Straub & Kerns, 2020), we expected that Experiential Simulation would be more strongly associated than Conceptual Innovation with features of schizotypy and involuntary sensory experiences.…”