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An Analysis of Social Competence in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Alan S. Bellack*
Affiliation:
The Medical College of Pennsylvania, 3200 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19129, USA
Randall L. Morrison
Affiliation:
The Medical College of Pennsylvania
John T. Wixted
Affiliation:
The Medical College of Pennsylvania
Kim T. Mueser
Affiliation:
The Medical College of Pennsylvania
*
Correspondence

Abstract

Twenty-one schizophrenics with prominent negative symptoms were compared with 37 schizophrenics without them, 33 patients with major affective disorder and 20 non-patient controls on a battery of measures including a role-play test of social skills, the Social Adjustment Scale, and the Quality of Life Scale. The negative schizophrenics were most impaired on every subscale of each measure, followed in order by the non-negative schizophrenics, affective disorder patients, and non-patient controls. The social skill measures were not correlated with positive symptom levels, but were highly correlated with measures of community functioning. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that social dysfunction results from focal deficits in social skills.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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