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External validity of two schizotypy questionnaires

Abstract:

The purpose of the present study was to compare the performance in several neuropsychological tasks, as cognitive markers of vulnerability to schizophrenia, of two normal population samples classified as high and low psychometrically schizotypal, according to MSTQ (Rawlings y Mac-Farlane, 1994) and O-LIFE (Mason, Claridge and Jackson, 1994), as an external validation procedure. Thirty three secondary school and 11 college students were selected from a normal sample of 185 subjects. The YSR (Achenback and Edelbrock, 1987) was also completed by the adolescents sample. Results fail to confirm differences between high and low psychometrically identified schizotypic individuals, casting some doubts about the usefulness of the questionnaries as early detection procedures of risk for schizophrenic spectrum disorders. Possible causes of the negative results are analysed and some suggestions are offered for future research.