Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia.

Communication disturbances, working memory, and emotion in people with elevated disorganized schizotypy

“…Ambivalence has long been thought to be a potentially important aspect of schizophrenia and schizotypy (Bleuler, 1911(Bleuler, /1950Meehl, 1962Meehl, , 1990Raulin & Brenner, 1993) and ambivalence has been strongly associated with decreased emotional clarity and problems identifying feelings (Kerns, 2006). The current results suggest that in addition to being associated with poor working memory that disorganized schizotypy is also associated with increased ambivalence and with decreased ability to identify emotions.…”

“…For example, Hoch and Cattell (1959) described people with pseudoneurotic schizophrenia as having a disturbance of thought process (separate from thought content), including disturbances in goal-directed thought and thought continuity. In addition, Meehl posited that associative loosening or what he called cognitive slippage was the most dependable indictor of schizotypy (Meehl, 1964) and that it was a primary manifestation of a schizophrenia diathesis (Meehl, 1962(Meehl, , 1990. Moreover, previous research has found that relatives of people with schizophrenia exhibit increased CD (e.g., Docherty et al, 2004).…”

“…Schizotypy refers to traits that are similar to symptoms of schizophrenia but often in a less severe form (Chapman, Chapman, Raulin, & Edell, 1978;Meehl, 1962). Therefore, disorganized schizotypy refers to disorganized speech and behavior traits that are similar to the disorganization symptoms of schizophrenia (Kerns, 2006).…”

“…Therefore, disorganized schizotypy refers to disorganized speech and behavior traits that are similar to the disorganization symptoms of schizophrenia (Kerns, 2006). In general, schizotypy traits are thought to reflect liability for schizophrenia (Meehl, 1962) and schizotypy research might provide evidence about the nature of liability for schizophrenia (Lenzenweger, 1999). Similarly, understanding the nature of schizotypy traits might contribute to an explanation for the development of schizophrenic symptoms.…”

“…In one previous study (Kerns, 2006), disorganized schizotypy has been found to be associated with increased emotional ambivalence. Ambivalence has been defined as reporting simultaneously conflicting emotions about something (Raulin & Brenner, 1993) and ambivalence has long been thought to be an important feature of schizophrenia (Bleuler, 1911(Bleuler, /1950Meehl, 1962). Importantly, conceptually ambivalence appears to be distinct from anhedonia, as anhedonia refers to a paucity of positive feelings whereas ambivalence refers to simultaneous positive and negative feelings.…”