Schizotypy, social cognition, and interpersonal sensitivity.

Overview

Social cognition in relation to schizophrenia liability remains largely uncharted terrain. Successful social interactions involve sensitivity to the feelings and behavior of others, and the ability to convey and communicate cues to elicit desired responses from others. Disruption in any part of this process will affect social interactions and functioning, including occupational functioning. Individuals who do better on tasks measuring interpersonal sensitivity are more interpersonally skilled and better adjusted (Hall, Andrzejewski, & Yopchick, 2009), and those who perform poorly on tasks of interpersonal sensitivity, such as patients with schizophrenia, have known interpersonal and social functioning deficits (e.g., Toomey, Schuldberg, Corrigan, & Green, 2002). Schizotypic subjects were compared to depression vulnerable and normal control subjects on a well-established dynamic test of interpersonal sensitivity, the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS; Rosenthal, Hall, DiMatteo, Rogers, & Archer, 1979, 2011). Results revealed a deficit for schizotypes relative to both the depression-risk and normal control groups on the PONS. Our examination of the interpersonal sensitivity in schizotypes may shed light on the social functioning problems seen in patients with schizophrenia in a translational research framework.