To determine whether schizotypy is a single trait can be complicated in the fact that if a personality disorder description should include, at minimum, criteria relevant
To a person’s characteristic patterns e.g. 1) thought, 2) affectivity,
3) motivation, and 4) behavior, the question that arisen to Westen, D., and Shedler, J. when researching the classification of personality disorders, is “how to develop a classification system for personality disorders that is 1) clinically useful and faithful to the data of clinical observation (since ultimately the diagnostic manual must apply to patients in clinical practice), and 2) based on empirical findings so it reflects as accurately as possible the categories of personality dysfunction that occur in nature.” (1999. p. 276.) And so their aim for this research was to report findings based on a large group of personality disorder patients in treatment with an experienced psychiatrist or psychologist drawn from a random national sample. Their findings suggested that many patients currently belonged to a single diagnostic group that was characterized by a dysphoric (which is an emotional state characterized by anxiety, depression, or unease) or depressive character structure. It was suggested that Patients in this dysphoric category differ in the activating conditions for their dysphoria, the example given was that some become distressed when forced to interact with other people, whereas others become distressed when they feel alone. Consequently in comparison to this as was suggested by Miller P, et al, in the research article of “schizotypal components in people at high risk of developing schizophrenia” he bases his findings for schizotypy showing symptoms of ‘social withdrawal’, ‘psychotic symptoms’, ‘socio-emotional dysfunction’ and ‘odd behavior’, thus it could be said that maybe schizotypy is a single personality trait of its own. (Miller, p.181) yet on the contrary when we look at schizotypy not as a single trait and yet having other factors to consider, it was suggested by Raine et al, 1994, that there is a four-factor solution which is said to offer an additional factor of ‘impulsive non-conformity’ with loadings of psychoticism, taken from the DSM III-borderline personality disorder. Moreover, more recent work on the nature of schizotypy has revealed that the concept is not a single dimension, but that several factors could be considered separable from one another and not just a single trait. Bentall, Claridge, and Slade (1989) combined a large battery of scales used previously to assess schizotypal traits—the combined schizotypal traits questionnaire (CSTQ). It was suggested that factor analysis of the data from a large number of participants has revealed four factors: unusual experiences (The disposition to have unusual and other cognitive experiences, such as , magical or superstitious belief and interpretation of events) cognitive disorganization (A tendency for thoughts to become derailed, disorganized or tangential), introvertive anhedonia (which is basically the absence of pleasure from the performance of acts that would normally be pleasurable) and impulsive non-conformity (The disposition to unstable mood and behavior particularly with regard to rules and social conventions.). As the CSTQ included many previous questionnaires used to measure schizotypy, it was considered too long and repetitive. Therefore, Mason et al. (1995) developed a new scale, the Oxford–Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (OLIFE), for evaluating schizotypal traits that was said to reliably measure the same four factors as the CSTQ but less repetitive. Gray et al, hoped by doing this study that with the OLIFE questionnaire would help discover different dimensions of schizotypy, and their relationship to cognitive dysfunction, which could then be isolated and examined. Some fact quoted in this study by Zuckerman, Kuhlman, & Camac, (1988) suggest that the OLIFE scale is more
akin to a measure psychopathy and criminality rather than schizophrenia. The conclusion of this research on the OLIFE questionnaire was that only certain dimensions of schizotypy are
associated with reductions in LI (latent inhibition, where participants are pre-exposed to a stimulus without consequence) offer the possibility of a more sophisticated understanding of the cognitive changes associated with psychosis and those who may be prone to it. In interpretation to this research, one could suggest that the findings of this study suggested that certain stimulus provoked certain behavior more associated to symptoms of schizotypy. (Gray, N, S., Fernandez, M., Williams, J., Ruddle, R, A and Snowden, R. pp 271-284, 2002)
It is said that schizotypy and schizophrenia have some similarities and that the only difference from them is the fact that was is mentioned by Verman and Eysenck, (1973) is that “schizophrenic disorders can be described in this view as lying at the extreme of psychoticism. What distinguishes schizophrenic disorders from affective disorders such as manic depression are differences in other personality traits such as extraversion.” (Cited in mason, 1995, p. 272). Moreover, it was also suggested in Matsui et al, (2002, p. 444) that “the clinical picture of schizotypal disorder is similar to the prodromal state of schizophrenia. The phenomenological differences between schizotypal disorder and schizophrenia are absence of the overt symptoms and the presence of sustained psychotic symptoms.” So basically it could be said that what Matsui is suggesting is that typical symptoms of schizophrenia that one would normally expect to see i.e., hallucinations whereby the person will be seeing or hearing things that are not physically present, however although one can not acknowledge what the person sees, it is obvious from their eccentric behavior that the person really believes to be seeing things, hearing voices and having irrational thoughts, which this is observed by their behavior. All these symptoms as Matsui suggest are visible whereas schizotypy symptoms are more controlled in their thoughts. (Cooper, 2002, p. 146)
It can been seen by using such instruments such as the Structured Interview for Schizotypy (SIS) can be used to investigate schizotypy symptoms. The SIS contains two main sections; the first section consists of a structured interview with probes that encourage the interviewer to elicit self-reported information on schizotypal symptoms and social relationships, such as childhood social isolation. The first section of SIS is said to result in 19 global ratings on seven-point scales such as the previous example mentioned. Some other examples given were ideas of reference, magical thinking and impulsivity. The second section on schizotypal signs are said to consists of the interviewers observations of behavior during the interview. It is suggested that the interviewer will look for signs like attention seekeing, the rapport between the interviewer and the client. How much the client grooms themselves and how much they enjoyed the interview. In this study Miller et al, 2002 also aimed to examine the relationships between schizotypal components, psychotic symptoms on the ‘Present State Examination’ (PSE) and subsequent schizophrenia. It was noted that the PSE consists of 140 items covering psychiatric symptoms, both psychotic and non-psychotic. Patients were said to be classified as having psychotic symptoms if, according to sprecified PSE items, (cited in Johnstone et al, 2000), such as ‘study classification’ that looked at whether subjects left school before exams, what kind of qualifications subjects had, whether they were standerd O/Levels GCSE’s or A/Level standard also looking for problems related to reading or writing, psychotic symptoms rated fully by clients own account, ‘social class of origin’ these were all examples of items that were used to compare two control samples if they showed any evidence of delusions, hallucinations or other behavior commonly present in schizophrenia it was hypothesized that 20-30 subjects would develop schizophrenia by the age of 30 years. (Edinburh High Risk Study, 1999).
In conclusion to this essay, some fact given in Miller 2002, p.183 suggested that ‘isolated shizotypal symptoms and signs are seldom precursors of an impending onset of shizophrenia’. The best all-round predictor given for the onset of other personality disorders i.e, ‘schizophrenia’, appears to be social withdrawal. However, the exact nature of the relationship between schizotypy and diagnosable psychotic illness is still debatable and it has not yet been decided whether the syndrome is most clearly marked by social withdrawal and other "negative" symptoms or by temporary "positive" symptoms or, indeed, whether schizotypy can be divided into several syndromes, such as the three-syndrome model suggested by Gruzelier. It might be suggested whether schizotypy leads to schizophrenia or can be answered only by longitudinal studies (as can the obverse of this question—Is schizophrenia preceded by schizotypy?). Longitudinal studies of at least two groups—relatives of patients with schizophrenia and college students who score high on schizotypy scales—need to be carried out.
