Schizotypal Estimators in Adolescence: The Concurrent Validity of the Risc

Abstract

The validation of questionnaires intended to identify the position of a subject along a normal/schizotypal/schizophrenic continuum has always been problematic. Schizophrenic patients are not good at completing questionnaire, and validation has to depend on the identification of "at risk" groups. Watt Grubb & Elenmeyer-Kimling (1982) found that the adolescent offspring of schizophrenics show the negative schizophrenic symptomology of interpersonal disharmony and emotional instability. The study reported here, using a sample of 174 adolescents of both sexes, considers the validity of the Rust Inventory of Schizotypal Cognitions (RISC), a psychometric questionnaire for the positive cognitive symptoms of the schizotypal personality. It is shown that the negative schizophrenic symptoms of social dysfunction and emotional instability as measured by the Minnesota Counselling Inventory are positively and significantly correlated with positive schizotypal symptomology as measured by the RISC.

The Rust Inventory of Schizotypal Cognitions (RISC)

“…Rust et al (in press) looked at the relationship between the RISC and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) (Eysenck and Eysenck 1976). A correlational analysis between the two scales in the sample of 608 Venezuelan university students (both scales in Spanish translation) showed that the RISC and EPQ Psychoticism have a rather low, although significant, correlation of .12.…”

Concurrent validity for the Rust Inventory of Schizotypal Cognitions

“…Additionally, RlSC scores correlated positively with the number of schizotypal symptoms in a group of chronically mentally ill individuals (Rust, 1989). Moreover, in a non-clinical college sample, Rust & Chiu (1988) found RlSC scores were significantly related to measures of interpersonal disharmony and emotional instability which have been found in the offspring of schizophrenics. The present study examined the concurrent validity of the RlSC with other self-report measures of schizophrenia-spectrum attributes within a non-clinical population.…”

Schizotypal Thinking Among Members of Occult Sects

“…The Rust Inventory of Schizotypal Cognitions (RISC; Rust, 1988Rust, , 1989Rust & Chiu, 1988; was administered to all participants. The RISC is a psychometrically constructed, cognitively based short questionnaire for tapping the cognitive schizotypal dimension in the normal population.…”