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Vaskin 2009
Vaskin 2009
Vaskin 2009
*Clinic for Mental Health, Oslo University Hospital - Aker, Oslo, Norway;
Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, CA;
Department of Veterans Affairs VISN 22 Mental Illness, Research, and Clinical
Center (MIRECC), Los Angeles, CA; and Department of Psychiatry and
Biobehavioral Sciences, Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.
Supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health MH43292 (to
M.F.G.) and the Fulbright Foundation for Educational Exchange (to A.V.).
Reprints: Anja Vaskinn, PhD, Oslo University HospitalAker, Clinic for Mental
Health, Trondheimsvn. 235, 0514 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: anja.vaskinn@medisin.
uio.no.
Copyright 2009 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
ISSN: 0022-3018/09/19709-0700
DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181b3ae62
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METHODS
Participants
The sample included 72 outpatients with a diagnosis of
schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ) and 58 healthy comparison persons (HC). All participants provided their written informed consent. The SZ group was recruited through the clinics of
the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Health Care System as
well as local board-and-care facilities. Diagnosis was based on the
Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCIDFirst et al., 1997). The HC group was recruited by advertisements in
newspapers and on the internet. All potential HC were administered
the SCID and selected sections of the Structured Clinical Interview
for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-IFirst et al., 1996). They were
excluded if they had a history of any psychotic disorder, recurrent
depression, bipolar disorder, substance dependence, or if they met
criteria for any of the following Axis II disorders: Avoidant, Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal. Having a first degree relative with
a psychotic disorder was another exclusion criterion in the HC
group. All SCID interviewers were trained to administer the SCID in
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Volume 197, Number 9, September 2009
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Volume 197, Number 9, September 2009
Community Functioning
t/x2
46.7 (9.6)
12.9 (1.7)a
11.8 (2.8)b
61/11
40.9 (7.6)
13.4 (1.0)
12.7 (2.8)c
34/24
3.7
1.7
1.7
11.1
0.001
0.099
0.086
0.001
2.4 (1.5)
1.8 (1.2)
0.7 (1.0)
2.7 (1.1)
2.6 (1.3)
1.6 (1.3)a
8.7 (1.7)
10.2 (1.7)
4.9
0.001
b
c
Statistical Analyses
All statistical analyses were conducted using the SPSS software, version 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Independent samples
t-tests were used to evaluate group differences for social perception
performance and demographic variables, except differences in the
gender distribution which was assessed with the chi square test.
Veridicality was assessed by conducting bivariate correlations
(Pearsons r) between IPT-15 scores and community functioning in
the SZ group. The association between social perception and symptoms was explored through correlational analyses (Pearsons r). The
internal consistency of the IPT-15 was examined using Cronbachs
alpha for the SZ and the HC samples separately. Variables were
normally distributed and thus parametric analyses used.
RESULTS
the VISN 22 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center
Treatment Unit and demonstrated agreement between their ratings
and the consensus ratings of expert diagnosticians (minimum Kappa
coefficient 0.75). The demographic characteristics of the 2 study
groups are displayed in Table 1.
Measures
Social Perception
The Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15; Costanzo and
Archer, 1993) is a videotape-based measure of social perception.
The 15 scenes of the IPT-15 were selected from the 30-item
Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT; Costanzo and Archer, 1989) to
improve the reliability and validity of the measure, as healthy
persons performed at or near chance on several items of the 30-item
IPT. Each scene of the IPT-15 lasts 30 to 90 seconds and involves
1 to 4 persons, diverse in age, race, and gender. The persons in the
scenes are not actors; but real persons in real situations. The scenes
of the IPT-15 were videotaped on a university campus and nearby
community. Each scene is followed by 1 multiple-choice question
about either the status of the persons (e.g., who won the racquetball
game?), the veracity of a person making 2 separate statements (e.g.,
which was the truth, the first statement or the second statement?), or
the intimacy level between persons (e.g., how long have they been
dating, 2 weeks or 2 years?). The IPT-15 yields a score between 0
and 15. Costanza and Archer (1989) have reported on the test-rest
reliability (r 0.70) and internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson
formula 20 statistic 0.52) of the 30-item IPT.
Clinical Symptoms
The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ( Ventura et al., 1993) is
an interview-based measure that assesses varied psychiatric symptoms. A positive symptom factor score was generated from the 3
items Hallucinations, Unusual Thought Content, and Conceptual
Disorganization. The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symp 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
DISCUSSION
The main goal of this study was to examine the ecological
validity (verisimilitude and veridicality) of the IPT-15 as a measure
of social perception used in schizophrenia research. The verisimilitude (apparent and expert-based judgment of closeness to reality of
both the stimuli and its social cognitive processing demands) of the
IPT-15 is quite strong. Unfortunately, the veridicality (statistical
associations suggestive of real world performance) of the IPT-15 is
quite weak in this sample. Social perception assessed by the IPT-15
was not correlated with functional status assessed with the Role
Functioning Scale in persons with schizophrenia. However, it discriminated well between the 2 groups of participants.
This study shows that verisimilitude is no guarantee of
veridicality. In fact, the features of the IPT-15 illustrate that these 2
aspects of ecological validity can be quite independent. The relatively lengthy, 30 to 90 second long, videotape scenes of the IPT-15
add to the verisimilitude of the measure by making them look very
contextual and real. Partly due to the length of the scenes, the
measure has fewer items. The lower number of items reduces
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Vaskinn et al.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Volume 197, Number 9, September 2009
CONCLUSIONS
0.03
0.02
0.04
0.09
0.00
0.28
0.22
0.13
0.10
0.17
a
Significant at the 0.05 level.
Community Functioning indicates role functioning scale; Positive symptoms,
BPRS, items hallucinations, unusual thought content and conceptual disorganization;
Negative symptoms, SANS global scores.
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