Impact of Schizophrenia Symptoms on Social Perception

According to the Australian Government Department of Health, Schizophrenia affects as many as 360,000 Australians. People learning to live with a severe mental illness is made more difficult when they encounter the isolating effects of being stigmatised. Individuals with schizophrenia suffer from a disconnection of their perception of reality, which can lead to delusions or inappropriate interpretations of emotions and thoughts. This study will look at whether the type of symptoms a person with schizophrenia exhibits (positive or negative symptoms) impact on how other people respond to a person with schizophrenia? In this study, we will define negative symptoms as: poor motivation, lack of emotion, and weak or a lack of social skills. Positive

In a study conducted by (Schumacher, Corrigan, & Dejong 2003). 117 Members of the public were asked to read four vignettes which presented a male stranger on public transport (train or bus). The vignettes varied by two sets of cues, positive and negative symptoms and clean and unkempt appearance. After reading each vignette the participant would rate the stranger on three items using a zero-to ten-point Likert Scale. The items included: How dangerous is the person? How threatening is the person? And Would you attempt to avoid the person? The results of the study found that participants rated the vignettes with positive symptoms as more dangerous. This study’s experimental design is similar to the study that we will be conducting, as participants will also be presented with a brief narrative, and asked to make some decisions about what they have read. If the results of (Schumacher et al. 2003) are valid it stands to reason that our experiment will get similar results. However, as we will be looking at how each symptom set, it may mean that raters will show a higher mean avoidance, for the vignettes with positive

Where they recruited 40 participants from The University of Chicago for psychiatric rehabilitation. All participants had their social skills assessed by way of a videotaped 3-minute conversation with a stranger/ confederate. Research assistants unfamiliar with the study then rated a range of the participants social skills on a 5-point Likert scale. The assessed social skills included: Overall Social Skill, Meshing, Clarity, Fluency, Affective Expressiveness, Eye Contact, Involvement, Pleasantness of Conversation, Whether the participant Asks questions, and Strangeness. After this social distance was measured using a Social Distance Scale (SDS), the SDS was modified to that it could be used for the participants in the previous videotapes. The Preliminary results of the study suggested that the sample was exhibiting a mild level of positive symptoms. However, after applying Bonferroni Correction it was found that this was only a weak to modest association. Contrary to expectations, negative symptoms, had a robust relationship with social distance. Despite their findings, our study will be a better test of the schemata held by the participants as they will be creating a mental image of what that person looks like rather than relying on the video provided. This will give us greater insight into the possible prejudices that already exist in the minds of our participants about people living with