JUDGMENTAL BIAS IN THE DIFFERENTIATION OF PROCESS AND REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA,
Abstract
In a previous study the authors found that what little success experienced judges had in differentiating process from reactive schizophrenia on the basis of patients' responses on a vocabulary test was attributable to a preconception that the process schizophrenics would show more confusion in their thinking than would the reactives. The correlation between the tendency of the judges to label the response typical of process schizophrenia and the amount of thought confusion exhibited in it (as established by an independent group of judges) was +.93, although there actually was no significant difference in the mean confusion scores of the two schizophrenic groups. The danger of such biases is obvious and a replication seemed in order using a new group of judges and responses to the Wechsler Bellevue Form I Similarities sub-test instead of vocabulary test materials. Except for the change in test materials the procedure followed exactly that of the original study. The Similarities test responses were obtained from the same carefully selected group of 10 process schizophrenics and 10 reactives. The 15 judges were new to the task, but all had the Ph.D. degree and at least 5 years of clinical experience. The first group of 5 rated each individual response for the amount of confusion exhibited using a 7 point scale. Another 5 were asked to decide whether each item was produced by a process or a reactive patient.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1944
- Accession Number
- AD0607291
Entities
People
- Melvin L. Schwartz
- Ronald E. Walker
- William A. Hunt
Organizations
- Northwestern University