Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Operant motor behavior in an acute schizophrenics. |
| Authors: |
King, Gerald F., Merrell, David W., Lovinger, Edward, Denny, M. Ray, KING, G F (AUTHOR), MERRELL, D W (AUTHOR), LOVINGER, E (AUTHOR), DENNY, M R (AUTHOR) |
| Source: |
Journal of Personality. Mar57, Vol. 25 Issue 3, p317-326. 10p. |
| Subjects: |
Schizophrenia, Pathological psychology, People with mental illness, Interpersonal relations, Personality, Therapeutics |
| Abstract: |
The article focuses on operant motor behavior (OMB) in acute schizophrenics. OMB seems best classified as a peripheral variable in terms of psychopathology. It is peripheral in the sense that functional psychopathology is generally viewed as fundamentally representing disturbances in interpersonal relationships. According to this frame of reference, a central variable in psychopathology would have to refer in some way to interpersonal processes. The following exploratory hypotheses were formulated for the investigation of operant motor behavior in 30 acute schizophrenics undergoing insulin coma therapy (a) severity of neuropsychiatric illness will be inversely related to rate of operant response, and (b) clinical improvement will be positively related to an increased operant rate. A personality organization-disorganization rating scale was constructed to measure severity of illness. The operant motor task involved pulling a plunger for rewards of candy and cigarettes. Further analysis of the data revealed a curvilinear relationship between severity of illness and operant rate. This relationship showed some promise in terms of offering a framework for predicting changes in operant rate when there was clinical improvement. |
| Database: |
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
