The placement of anomalous self-experiences within schizotypal personality in a nonclinical sample
Section snippets
The placement of anomalous self-experiences within schizotypal personality
Anomalous self-experiences (ASEs) are disturbances in the subjective experience of the self (Parnas et al., 2005), and have a long history in descriptive psychiatry (Parnas, 2011). Early conceptualizations of schizophrenia suggested ASEs are core features of the disorder (Bleuler, 1911). Despite this history, disturbances in self-processing are not included in any current major nosology of psychotic-spectrum disorders, such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10; World Health
Participants
Participants were 744 undergraduates at a large public Pacific university who participated in exchange for partial completion of a course requirement. All students in psychology courses had the option to sign up for the study on the online system SONA. Seven hundred fifty-one participants provided informed consent, and 744 participants completed the study. Their mean age was 20.11 (SD = 3.60). The sample was diverse, with 30.6% East Asian, 23.9% White, 17.7% Southeast Asian, 11.6% Multiracial,
Data analysis
All models were fit using Mplus 8.1 software (Muthen and Muthen, 1998-2019) using MLR, with standard errors that are robust to non-normality of data. The absolute fit of the models was assessed with Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), and Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMSR). Following conventional criteria, RMSEA and SRMSR values <0.10 were considered acceptable and <0.05 were considered excellent. CFI and TLI
Results
First, we examined the zero-order correlations of all of the measures. As can be seen in Supplemental Table 1, all of the anomalous self-experiences and schizotypal personality variables were positively correlated with each other.
Next, we examined the placement of ASEs on the factor models. As can be seen in Table 1, Model 5, in which ASEs form a separate, fifth factor, fit the data well according to the RMSEA, CFI, and SRMR statistics (see Fig. 1). This model also fit better, according to the
Discussion
The results of the current research suggest that ASEs are distinct from other facets of schizotypal personality. This is consistent with a long line of research into self-disturbances in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, which suggests that ASEs are highly correlated with, but distinct from positive symptoms of schizophrenia (Henriksen and Parnas, 2012). In the current research, a factor model with separate ASE, cognitive-perceptual, paranoid, interpersonal, and disorganized schizotypal
Contributors
David C. Cicero designed the study, collected the data, conducted the statistical analyses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Lukasz Gaweda and Barnaby Nelson edited the manuscript and contributed important conceptual input. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Role of funding source
The current study was not funded.
Declaration of competing interest
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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