Applications of personality psychology: Personalitymental health continuua

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Applications of personality psychology
Personality-mental health continuua

• Christine Simmonds-Moore

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Overview

• Are people in the general population who score
  high on scales which reflect traits associated
  with psychopathology destined to develop
  disorders?
• I will be presenting evidence that this is not de
  facto the case
• Instead, there is evidence for the
  personality-mental health continuum model in
  several clinical areas
• We will explore schizotypy, psychopathy and
  autism with this idea in mind

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There is such a thing as latent schizophrenia
and I almost believe that it is the most
frequently occurring form even though it comes
under treatment the least oftenAll the symptoms
and symptom combinations which can be found in
the fully developed illness can appear here in
nuce - Bleuler 1911
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Continuua of schizotypal traits

• Continuity of mental health and illness
  personality dimension
• The construct of schizotypy
• Personality dimensions reflecting traits which in
  extreme form are associated with mental illness
• Rado (1953) schizophrenic genotype
• Meehl (1962) phenotype
• Claridge (1997) Schizotypy
• is the less deviant bedfellow of
  schizophrenia
• Schizoidness
• Psychosis proneness
• Psychoticism
• Bioeccentricity? (Brod, 1997)
• Transliminality? (Thalbourne)

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Evidence of clinical symptoms or personality
continuum?

• Dimensionality
• Quasi dimensional
• Fully dimensional
• Kendler (1985)
• Personality
• Psychotic symptoms
• Eysencks Psychoticism
• First to measure using personality questionnaires
• Notion of continuity
• Also supported the controversial idea of
  einheitpsychose
• Claridge, 1997 environment and predisposition
• Blood pressure and strokes

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Dimensions of psychosis
Psychosis
Quasi- dimensional
Personality disorders
PSYCHOSIS SPECTRUM
Genetic disposition x environment
Fully dimensional
Psychoticism
Personality traits Cognitive style
(creativity) Nervous system type Genetic variation
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How is schizotypy measured?

• There are a variety of questionnaires available
  for the measurement of schizotypy (see Claridge,
  1997, ch.2).
• Measurement differs according to researchers
  perspectives on whether clinical or personality
• The Chapmans (quasi-dimensional/clinical)
• Magical Ideation Scale
• Perceptual Aberration Scale
• Social physical anhedonia
• The O-LIFE (Mason and colleagues) (fully
  dimensional)
• Unusual experiences
• Cognitive disorganisation
• Introvertive anhedonia
• Impulsive nonconformity

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Schizotypy as an analogue to schizophrenia

• There is disagreement in the literature on the
  number of factors, or sub-types of schizotypy
• These range from 2-4 (see chapter 2 in Claridge,
  1997)
• 4 factors of schizotypy are analogues of factors
  of schizophrenia (e.g., Gruzelier)
• Positive/unusual experiences
• Cognitive disorganisation
• Impulsive nonconformity
• Introvertive anhedonia

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What are the traits reflecting positive
schizotypy?

• Reduced inhibitory processes in the brain and
  mind, which results in thinner boundaries,
  e.g., anomalous sleep-wake and arousal mechanisms
  (e.g., McCreery Claridge),
• Wider attention (as measured by superior
  performance on negative priming)
• Better processing of subliminal information
  (e.g., Evans, 1997)
• More memory for dreams and nightmares (Claridge,
  Clark and Davis),
• A looseness of associative processing (e.g.,
  Farias, Claridge Lalljee, 2005), resulting in
  the tendency to see causality and meaning between
  events and perceptions and hallucinate (see
  Brugger, 2001).
• At one tail of the distribution, there is
  very little manifestation of the traits, while at
  the opposite end there is a high expression of
  the traits

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The happy or benign schizotype

• A normal cognitive/perceptual analogue of
  schizophrenia
• Later breakdown is related to the presence of
  negative traits (Chapman et al., 1994)
• Healthy or benign schizotypy (e.g., Jackson,
  1997) is associated with
• Spirituality (e.g., Jackson, 1997)
• Creativity (e.g., Brod, 1997)
• Meaningfulness (e.g., Brugger)
• psi experiences and beliefs (E.g., Goulding,
  2004)
• ESP performance (e.g., Parker, 2000).

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• Honig et al. (1998) give the example of a 42
  year-old woman, a psychic healer, who had heard
  voices since she was a child, she perceives these
  voices as protective ghosts, giving her advice,
  comfort and care. She communicates with the
  voices, when her clients consult her. Other
  hallucinatory experiences, e.g., in visual,
  tactile and olfactory modalities are also
  experienced by this woman.

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Why does the schizophrenia gene stay in the gene
pool?
Unless social and reproductive disadvantages
are balanced by some kind of positive the gene
would be selected out (Huxley et al.,1964)
ESP ?
creativity
spirituality
meaningfulness
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Evolution and schizotypy

• Fitness and adaptive schizotypy
• Miller artistic production like a costly signal
  to attract mates
• More sexual partners among those with positive
  and impulsive aspects of schizotypy (Nettle
  Clegg, 2005)
• Less sexual partners among those with negative
  aspects of schizotypy
• Recent paper challenges this idea (Miller Tal,
  2007).

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Autism as a personality continuum I

• What are autistic traits?
• Abnormalities in social and communication
  development
• Marked repetitive behaviour
• Narrow interests
• (See The Strange Case of the Dog at Midnight)
• More males than females Baron-Cohens
  hyper-masculinisation theory
• There are weaker forms of autism high
  functioning autism and Aspergers syndrome
• High intelligence

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Autism as a personality dimension II

• There are phenotypic similarities to autism in
  non autistic relatives of autistic probands
  (E.g., Piven, Palmer, Jacobik Childress Arndt,
  1997 Piven, Palmer, Landa, et al., 1997)
• There are tendencies for non autistic relatives
  of autistic individuals to be
• Aloof
• Tactless
• Undemonstrative
• Hypersensitive
• Anxious
• Impulsive
• Shy
• Irritable
• Eccentric
• Rigid (see Austin, 2005 for a review).

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Autism as a personality continuum III

• Recently, autistic traits have been put forward
  as varying along a personality dimension
• There is a continuum of social-communication
  skills in the general population
• Autism falls along this spectrum (e.g.,
  Baron-Cohen, 1995 Frith, 1991, Wing e.g., 1988)
• There is some evidence for this idea
• The Autistic Spectrum Quotient (ASQ) was
  constructed by Baron-Cohen and colleagues (2001)
• Discriminates those with Autistic spectrum
  conditions, including Aspergers and High
  functioning autism
• There was a normal distribution of the traits in
  two cultures (UK and Japan)
• Autism Spectrum Quotient is an independent
  variable to the dominant personality model (the
  Big Five) (see Wakabayashi, Baron-Cohen
  Wheelright, 2006)

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Is there a benefit to the gene pool associated
with autism?

• What do you think?
• The literature does not explore this directly,
  but there are hints.
• Hard science students had higher scores on AQ
  than other students (Austin, 2005)
• Students with parents in a scientific occupation
  had higher scores than other students (Austin,
  2005)
• Those who are high functioning autistics, or
  autistic savants have phenomenal memories

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What about psychopathy?

• Psychopathy is associated with antisocial
  tendencies including demonstration of a lack of
  remorse, arrogance, a tendency to cheat and use
  manipulation and aggression to get want they want
• Most research has focused on forensic populations
  such as prisoners and mentally disordered
  offenders
• Can it also be considered to be a personality
  dimension?
• Support for the psychopathic traits in the
  general population (e.g., Board Fritzon, 2005
  Ross, Lutz Bailey, 2004)
• The psychopathic Personality Inventory
  (Lilienfeld Andrews, 1996, see Uziebol,
  Berschure Crombez, 2007)

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Is there a fitness/social advantage to
psychopathy?

• Those who score high on machiavellianism
  (interpersonal strategies that promote self
  interest, deception and manipulation) are
  perceived to be more intelligent and attractive
  (e.g, Cherulnick et al, 1981) but not in all
  settings (see Jakobitz Egan, 2006)
• Assuming leadership in group situations
  (Cherulnick et al, 1981)
• Cheating can provide benefits under certain
  conditions

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Summary of the analogue approach

• This allows for psychologists to study
  individuals with watered down versions of the
  clinical syndrome in healthy participants
• May imply that there is an adaptive element to
  the genes associated with the disorder
• Schizotypy and creativity and meaning seeking
• Autism and intellectual achievement
  particularly in the sciences
• Psychopathy and leadership success

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References and further reading

• Claridge, G. (1997). Schizotypy Implications for
  Health and Illness. New York Oxford University
  Press. (In the library).
• Wakabayashi, A., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright,
  S. (2006). Are Autistic traits an independent
  personality dimension? A study of the
  Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the NEO-PI-R.
  Personality and Individual Differences, 41,
  873-883.(via sciencedirect)
• Austin, E.J. (2005). Personality correlates of
  the broader spectrum phenotype as assessed by the
  Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Personality and
  Individual Differences, 38, 451-460. (via
  sciencedirect)
• Mason, O, Linney, Y, Claridge, G. (2005). Short
  scales for measuring schizotypy. Schizophrenia
  Research 78 (2005) 293 296
• Miller G. F Tal., I.R. (2007). Schizotypy
  versus openness and intelligence as predictors of
  creativity. Schizophrenia research in press
  via Sciencedirect.
• Jakobwitz, S Egan, V. (2006). The Dark Triad
  and normal personality traits. Personality and
  Individual Differences, 40, 331-339.