Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T14:37:22.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Comparative Study of Attentional Strategies of Schizophrenic and Highly Creative Normal Subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Margaret Dykes  and
Andrew McGhie
Margaret Dykes
Affiliation:
Kingston Psychiatric Hospital, Ontario
Andrew McGhie
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Frequent references have been made to the similarities between highly creative and psychotic thinking. This study attempts to test the hypothesis that one explanation for such a correspondence lies in the fact that individuals in both these populations habitually employ common attentional strategies which cause them to sample an unusually wide range of available environmental stimuli.

A group of highly creative adults and a group of equally intelligent but low creative adults were compared with a group of acute non-paranoid schizophrenic adults on three tests designed to assess attentional and other cognitive styles.

The results offer support to the view that both highly creative and schizophrenic individuals habitually sample a wider range of available environmental input than do less creative individuals. In the case of the schizophrenic this involuntary widening of attention tends to have a deleterious effect on performance, while, in contrast, the highly creative individual is more able to successfully process the greater input without this incurring a performance deficit.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 128 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 50 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arthur, A. Z. (1969) Queen's norms for responses to 100 words from the Kent-Rosanoff Word Association Test. N.R.C. Project No. APA 0269, May 1969, Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.Google Scholar
Barron, F. (1972) The creative personality: akin to madness. Psychology Today, 6, 2, 42.Google Scholar
Carter, M. & Watts, C. A. H. (1971) Possible biological advantages among schizophrenics’ relatives. Brit. J. Psychiat., 118, 543–60.Google Scholar
Chapman, L. J. (1956) Distractibility in the conceptual performance of schizophrenics. J. abnorm, soc. Psychol., 53, 286–91.Google Scholar
Chapman, L. J. (1958) The intrusion of associative responses into schizophrenic conceptual performance. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 56, 374–9.Google Scholar
Claridge, G. (1972) The schizophrenics as nervous types. Brit. J. Psychol., 121, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropley, A. J. (1968) A note on the Wallach-Kogan Test of Creativity. Brit. J. educ. Psychol., 38, 197–201.Google Scholar
Dellas, M. & Gaier, E. L. (1970) Identification of creativity: the individual. Psychol. Bull., 73, 55–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, , Havelock, (1904) A Study of British Genius. London: Hurst and Blackett.Google Scholar
Goertzel, V. & Goetzel, M. G. (1962) Cradles of Eminence. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Hammer, M. & Zubin, J. (1968) Evolution, culture and psychopathology. J. gen. Psychol., 78, 154–75.Google Scholar
Heston, L. L. (1966) Psychiatric disorders in foster home reared children of schizophrenic mothers. Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 819–25.Google Scholar
Huxley, J., Mayr, E., Hoffer, H. & Osmond, A. (1964) Schizophrenia as a genetic morphism. Nature, 204, 220–1.Google Scholar
Jarvik, L. F. & Chadwick, S. B. (1973) Schizophrenia and survival. In Psychopathology (eds. Hammer, M., Salzinger, K. and Sutten, S.). Wiley.Google Scholar
Karlsson, J. L. (1968) Genealogical studies of schizophrenia. The Transmission of Schizophrenia (eds. Rosenthal, D. and Kety, S. S.). Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kris, E. (1952) Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art. New York: International University Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, H. (1966) Pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. In Psychopathology of Schizophrenia (eds. Hoch, P. and Zubin, J.). Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Lovibond, S. H. (1954) The object sorting test and conceptual thinking in schizophrenia. Australian Journal of Psychology, 6, 52–70.Google Scholar
McConaghy, N., & Clancy, M. (1968) Familial relationship of allusive thinking in university students and their parents. Brit. J. Psychiat., 114, 1079–87.Google Scholar
McGhie, A. (1969) Pathology of Attention. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Payne, R. W. (1961) Cognitive abnormalities. In Handbook of Abnormal Psychology (ed. Eysenck, H. J.). Basic Books.Google Scholar
Payne, R. W., & Hewlett, H. G. (1960) Thought disorder in psychotic patients. In Experiments on Personality, Vol. 2 (ed. Eysenck, H. J.). Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Payne, R. W. Hochberg, A. C., & Hawks, D. V. (1970) Dichotic stimulation as a method of assessing disorder of attention in overinclusive schizophrenic patients. J. abnorm. Psychol., 76, 185–93.Google Scholar
Shakow, D. (1963) Psychological deficit in schizophrenia. Behav. Sci., 8, 275–305.Google Scholar
Silverman, J. (1964) Scanning control and cognitive filtering. J. consult. Psychol., 28, 385–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Usdansky, G. & Chapman, L. J. (1960) Schizophrenic-like responses in normal subjects under time pressure. J. abnorm, soc. Psychol., 60, 143–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallach, M. A. & Kogan, N. (1965) Modes of Thinking in Young Children: A Study of the Creativity-Intelligence Distinction. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Weckowicz, T. E. (1957) Size constancy in schizophrenic patients. J. ment. Sci., 103, 432–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wild, C. (1965) Creativity and adaptive regression. J. pers. soc. Psychol., 2, 161–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zubin, A. (1971) Personal communication.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.