Eckart R. Straube

Thinking styles, schizotypal traits and anomalous experiences

This study investigated the relationship between thinking styles (rational versus intuitive), schizotypal traits, intolerance of ambiguity, self-efficacy and anomalous experiences (self-reported paranormal abilities, experiences, beliefs) in a sample of university students (N=374, 206 females and 168 males). Correlational analyses showed that the anomalous experiences were closely related to schizotypal traits and thinking styles. A cluster analysis revealed four types of thinking styles: rational (high rational and low intuitive), intuitive (high intuitive and low rational), complementary (high rational and high intuitive) and poor (low rational and low intuitive). Participants with a complementary thinking style showed higher scores on the anomalous experiences, on the cognitive–perceptual aspects of schizotypy and self-efficacy than members of the other groups. Intuitive thinkers scored highest on interpersonal aspects of schizotypy and interpersonal intolerance of ambiguity. Further research should take into account the influence of thinking processes on the underlying mechanisms of schizotypy and the paranormal.

Factor structure of schizotypal traits among adolescents

Abstract The main purpose of the present study was to assess the factor structure of schizotypal personality traits in a sample of 1362 adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 18 years, i.e. in a sample of an age period where the risk of developing schizophrenia begins to rise. Schizotypal traits were assessed with the Schizotypal Personality Scale (STA) of Claridge and Broks (1984). A further aim of our study was to compare our findings with results from samples of other authors. We were also interested in the relationship of schizotypal traits with other clinical measures (depression and anxiety). The principal component analysis of the STA resulted in a three-factor solution and yielded results that were contrary in part to those reported by previous studies. Factor one was characterized as magical ideation/unusual perceptual experiences, factor two as ideas of reference/social anxiety, and factor three as suspiciousness. The three schizotypal factors and the depression and anxiety disorders scales correlated considerably. The differences between the factor structure of our adolescent sample and that of samples with older age cohorts were interpreted as due to the developmental process of clinical, especially schizotypal, traits.

Posttraumatische Belastungsstörung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Bislang liegen im Vergleich zur Forschung zur Posttraumatischen Belastungsstorung (PTB) bei Erwachsenen erst wenige Studien zur Epidemiologie und zur Behandlung der Storung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen vor. Atiologische Modelle berucksichtigen bislang nur wenig entwicklungsbedingte Besonderheiten der Traumatisierung im fruhen Lebensalter. Fragestellung: Uberblick zum Stand der Forschung zu Haufigkeit, Entstehung, Aufrechterhaltung und Behandlung der PTB im Kindes- und Jugendalter. Methode: Analyse bislang vorliegender empirischer und theoretischer Arbeiten. Ergebnisse: Das Symptombild bei Kindern unterscheidet sich deutlich von dem der Erwachsenen, Unterschiede sowie diagnostische Instrumente werden beschrieben. Nach dem Erleben von Gewalt, besonders sexueller Art, erkranken Kinder und Jugendliche im Vergleich zu anderen Formen der Traumatisierung am haufigsten an einer PTB. Jungen sind insgesamt nach einer Traumatisierung weniger stark von posttraumatischer Sym...

Input dysfunction and beyond—an evaluation of CPT components

The aim of our project is to analyze the functional meaning of neurocognitive components of the Continuous Performance Tests (CPT), which may be responsible for the well-documented performance deficit. Since the CPT can be considered as a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia, this question is of special interest. We set up a test battery testing five different cognitive processing modes: perceptual organization, selective attention, short-term memory (storing component), working memory (rehearsal component), and vigilance/sustained attention. In order to avoid the pitfall of interpreting results confounded by psychometric differences within tasks, we created psychometrically parallel versions within each experimental block (following the proposals of Chapman and Chapman [J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 171 (1983) 658]). At the main experimental session, we tested newly admitted patients with a DSM diagnosis of schizophrenia during remission (N=30), patients with major depressive disorder (MD) (N=18), and healthy controls (N=20). Results showed that differences specific for schizophrenia are seen at the experimental block, which tests perceptual organization. However, all levels of perceptual organization performance were concerned, i.e., from processing organized to non-organized patterns. The regression analysis showed that 3-7 CPT version performances could be explained by problems with short-term memory, sustained attention, and perceptual organization. In light of these findings, we discussed whether etiology of schizophrenia could be conceptualized as a circumscribed neurocognitive deficit or a multifunctional, multilocal deficit.

Distraction resulting from disease related words in alcohol-dependent inpatients: a controlled dichotic listening study

To test whether alcoholics develop an information processing bias towards disease-related stimuli, 30 alcoholic inpatients and 30 controls were administered a dichotic listening task. Three different stimulus types were presented to the right (ignored) channel: neutral words, rare neutral words and alcohol-related words. The hypothesized information processing bias should cause patients to make disproportionally more shadowing errors in the third condition. An ANOVA revealed a significant condition effect (P<0.001), a tendency towards a group effect (P=0.09) and a significant interaction (P<0.01) in the expected direction. There was a marked increase of errors in alcoholics when disease-related stimuli were presented compared to the neutral conditions and to the controls.

Experimente zur Wahrnehmung Schizophrener

SummaryAcute and chronic schizophrenic subjects were tested with 6 simple experimental tasks of visual stimulus selection. The 2 control groups were a group of non-psychiatric subjects and one of patients with other psychiatric diagnoses. The 6 experimental tasks represented three different types of attention: 1) differentiation between “figure” and “background”, 2) concentration; 3) visual integration (Gestalt completion). The main result was that the acute group with paranoid psychosis and hallucinations made significantly more mistakes in figure-background differentiation (grouping of patterns). But there was no difference between this group and the other patients in the concentration tasks. Both schizophrenic groups performed more poorly in the Gestalt completion task.The results are discussed in light of the information theory (breakdown of a hypothetical filter mechanism) and Sokolows psychophysiological model of stimulus selection. The hypothesis is put forward that in the acute schizophrenic group a disturbance in an arousal-modulation system is responsible for attenuation of irrelevant input.ZusammenfassungBei akut und chronisch schizophrenen Patienten wurden 6 einfache experimentelle Aufgaben zur visuellen Reizselektion durchgeführt. Die beiden Kontrollgruppen setzten sich aus nicht-psychiatrischen Vpn und einer klinischen Gruppe anderer Diagnose zusammen. Die 6 Aufgaben repräsentierten 3 verschiedene Aufmerksamkeitsarten: 1. Ambivalenz zwischen „Figur“ und „Hintergrund“, 2. Konzentrationsaufgaben und 3. visuelle Integration von Figurenteilen (Gestaltschließen). Das Hauptergebnis war, daß nur die akute paranoid-halluzinatorische Gruppe signifikant mehr Fehler in der Aufgabe mit Figur-Grund-Ambivalenz (Muster gruppieren) machte. In den Konzentrationsaufgaben bestand aber kein Unterschied zwischen dieser Gruppe und den übrigen Patienten. Beide Schizophreniegruppen lösten die Aufgabe „Figuren ergänzen“ (Gestaltschließen) schlechter.Die Ergebnisse wurden im Rahmen der Informationstheorie (Zusammenbruch eines hypothetischen Filtermechanismus) und des psychophysiologischen Modells der Reizselektion von Sokolow diskutiert. Für die akut schizophrene Gruppe wurde die Hypothese einer Disregulation eines Arousal-Modulations-Systems, welches für die zentralnervöse Abdämpfung irrelevanten Imputs verantwortlich ist, vorgeschlagen.

Entwicklung und Überprüfung einer neuen Skala zur Erfassung von dissoziativen Phänomenen: Die Jenaer Dissoziationsskala JDS

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: In einer vorherigen Studie zeigte sich, dass gangigen Skalen zur Erfassung von dissoziativen Symptomen unterschiedliche konzeptuelle Vorstellungen zu Grunde liegen und die Gutekriterien dieser Skalen zum Teil nicht zufriedenstellend sind. Vor allem die Validitatsfrage ist noch ungeklart. Fragestellung: Ziel dieser Studie war deshalb die Entwicklung einer neuen Skala zur Erfassung der Kernelemente der Dissoziativen Storungen nach DSM-IV (d.h. Amnesie, Depersonalisation, Derealisation, Fugue, Aufspaltung in verschiedene Bewusstseinszustande), um die bisher nur unzureichende inhaltliche Validitat zu erhohen und somit die Differenzierung zwischen Patienten mit einer Dissoziativen Storung und Gesunden sowie Patienten mit anderen psychischen Storungen zu ermoglichen. Methode: Der neue Fragebogen wurde auf der Basis der vorhandenen Daten nach statistischen und inhaltlichen Kriterien konzipiert und wurde um inhaltlich relevante Bereiche erganzt. Die daraus resultierende...