Roles of impression management in the interview, self-report, and cognitive behavior of schizophrenics.

Abstract

An attempt was made to determine which types of behavior serve as manipulative impression-management tools among schizophrenics. Three samples of open-ward psychiatric hospital male schizophrenics were studied; one was implicitly threatened with a return to the closed ward, a second was threatened with discharge, and the third received neutral instructions. The differential instructions did not affect interview or cognitive behavior indexes, but apparently did lead to manipulation on certain self-report scales (MMPI Hypochondriasis and Psychasthenia). An attempt to determine which subgroups of schizophrenics tend to engage in such manipulatory behavior proved unproductive.

Impression management in the psychiatric interview: Quality, style, and individual differences.

“…More precisely, expressions of worry, inability to function, and hopelessness were most common in the fake sick interview. This manipulation of predominantly neurosisrelevant behavior is similar to the findings of Watson (1972), who concluded that the more extreme schizophrenic symptoms are nonmanipulatable characteristics but that "psychiatric impression management may play a relatively important role in determining neu-rotic aspects of behavior among schizophrenics" (p. 455). The current results nevertheless did reveal patients to be manipulating some responses that might be relevant to a diagnosis of psychosis.…”

“…In the first, Braginsky and Braginsky (1967) found that open-ward patients were able to present themselves as either healthy or sick, without explicit prompting to do so, depending on whether they believed a 2-minute interview might result in locked ward placement or discharge, respectively. However, Watson (1972), using a longer, more structured interview and an objective scoring system, was unable to confirm the findings of Braginsky and Braginsky. Watson's experimental manipulation neither produced significant effects on interview-based self-descriptions by patients nor did it" induce significant effects on the interviewer ratings reflecting patients' psychoticisms, subjective distress, apathy, and uncooperativeness.…”

“…Watson's experimental manipulation neither produced significant effects on interview-based self-descriptions by patients nor did it" induce significant effects on the interviewer ratings reflecting patients' psychoticisms, subjective distress, apathy, and uncooperativeness. Perhaps the patients in the Braginsky and Braginsky research were able to fake degrees of illness for a brief period of time (2 minutes) by employing some globally pathological behavior, but, when patients' actions were more carefully scrutinized, as in Watson's (1972) experiment, their attempts failed to sustain the desired impression.…”