Ambivalence has a longstanding history in schizophrenia-spectrum and borderline personality psychopathology, although it has been largely overlooked in current psychopathology research. The Schizotypal Ambivalence Scale (SAS) provides a brief, psychometrically sound questionnaire for assessing ambivalence characteristic of the schizotypy spectrum. We conducted three interview studies examining associations of the SAS with impairment, schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology, borderline personality disorder, and mood disorders in independent samples of young adults (n's = 57, 151, 162). Despite being conducted in different regions with differing designs, results showed good convergence across the three studies. SAS scores were robustly associated with impairment, schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology and personality traits, and borderline personality traits (typically medium effects). Furthermore, significant associations of the SAS with the interview-outcome measures remained after partialling variance associated with neuroticism. The results support the construct validity of schizotypal ambivalence and the SAS. Recommendations for future study are provided.

Abstract. The vulnerability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders is expressed across a continuum of clinical and subclinical symptoms and impairment known as schizotypy. Schizotypy is a multidimensional construct with positive, negative, and disorganized dimensions. Openness to experience offers a useful personality domain for exploring multidimensional schizotypy. This study examined the factor structure of openness and its relation to schizotypy using the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale-Brief (MSS-B) in a sample of 2,236 adults. Positive schizotypy was broadly associated with elevated openness and negative schizotypy was generally associated with diminished openness. Principal components analysis of 15 openness facets replicated the four-factor structure of openness including Fantasy/Feelings, Eccentricity, Nontraditionalism, and Ideas factors. All three schizotypy dimensions were associated with Eccentricity. Positive schizotypy was associated with Fantasy/Feelings, whereas negative schizotypy was inversely associated with Fantasy/Feelings. Results support the construct validity of the MSS-B, use of alternative openness measures in examining schizotypy, and the multidimensional structures of schizotypy and openness.

The underlying vulnerability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders is expressed across a continuum of clinical and subclinical symptoms referred to as schizotypy. Schizotypy is a multidimensional construct with positive, negative, and disorganized dimensions. The present study examined associations of positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy with pathological personality traits and facets assessed by the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) in 1,342 young adults. As hypothesized, positive schizotypy was associated with the PID-5 psychoticism domain and facets, negative schizotypy was associated with the detachment domain and facets and the restricted affectivity facet, and disorganized schizotypy's strongest associations were with the distractibility and eccentricity facets and the negative affect domain. The PID-5 facets accounted for upwards of two thirds of the variance in each schizotypy dimension. The authors conclude by providing regression-based algorithms for computing positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy scores based on the PID-5 facets.

The underlying vulnerability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders is expressed across a continuum of clinical and subclinical symptoms and impairment known as schizotypy. Schizotypy is a multidimensional construct with positive, negative, and disorganized dimensions. Models of normal personality provide useful frameworks for examining the multidimensional structure of schizotypy. However, the relationship of schizotypy with openness to experience has been largely limited to studies using the five-factor model of personality, which may not adequately capture maladaptive expressions of openness. Therefore, this study examined the relationship of positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy with multiple measures of openness that capture adaptive and maladaptive aspects of the construct. MTurk and university participants (n = 1,281) completed the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale and five measures of openness. As hypothesized, positive schizotypy was generally associated with elevated openness, especially measures tapping oddness and eccentricity, whereas negative schizotypy was inversely associated with openness, especially measures assessing openness to feelings. Disorganized schizotypy was generally unassociated with openness. Principal components analysis of 15 openness facets revealed four factors: Fantasy/Feelings, Ideas, Eccentricity, and Nontraditionalism, and provided more nuanced understanding of the associations of schizotypy and openness. Positive schizotypy was associated with each factor (albeit inversely with Nontraditionalism), negative schizotypy was inversely associated with Fantasy/Feelings but positively associated with Eccentricity, and disorganized schizotypy was only associated with Eccentricity. These results support the construct validity of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale and highlight that the association of schizotypy and openness is best understood by considering the multidimensionality of both constructs and evaluating adaptive and maladaptive openness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study provided the first examination of the construct validity of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale (MSS) and the first assessment of its psychometric properties outside of its derivation samples. The MSS contains 77 items that assess positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy. A large multisite sample of 1,430 participants completed the MSS and measures of schizotypal personality traits and the five-factor model of personality. The MSS subscales had good-to-excellent internal consistency reliability that showed no shrinkage relative to the MSS derivation samples. The psychometric properties and intercorrelations of the MSS subscales were closely consistent with the derivation findings. The MSS Positive Schizotypy subscale had a strong association with cognitive-perceptual schizotypal traits (large effect), positive associations with personality traits of neuroticism and openness to experience, and negative associations with agreeableness. The MSS Negative Schizotypy subscale had a strong association with interpersonal schizotypal traits (medium effect) and negative associations with personality traits of extraversion, openness, and agreeableness. The MSS Disorganized Schizotypy subscale had a strong association with disorganized schizotypal traits (medium effect), a positive association with neuroticism, and a negative association with conscientiousness. The findings were consistent with the a priori predictions and support the construct validity of the MSS. (PsycINFO Database Record

This study reports on an initial examination of the construct validity of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale-Brief (MSS-B) and the first investigation of its psychometric properties outside of its derivation samples. The MSS-B contains 38 items that assess positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy and has comparable content coverage and psychometric properties as the original 77-item Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale. Two large samples (n=1430 and 1289) completed the MSS-B, as well as measures of schizotypal personality traits and the Five-Factor Model of Personality. MSS-B scores were computed from the full-length scale in sample 1, whereas participants in sample 2 were administered the MSS-B. The psychometric properties and intercorrelations of the MSS-B subscales were consistent with findings from the original derivation samples, with no shrinkage in reliability. In terms of relations with schizotypal traits, the MSS-B positive schizotypy dimension had its strongest association with cognitive-perceptual schizotypal traits, MSS-B negative schizotypy had its strongest association with interpersonal schizotypal traits, and MSS-B disorganized schizotypy had its strongest association with disorganized schizotypal traits. The schizotypy dimensions were characterized by hypothesized patterns of distinct associations with the Five-Factor Model. The present findings are consistent with results from the full-scale MSS.

This article reports on the development of a new self-report questionnaire measure of schizotypy - the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale (MSS). Schizotypy offers a useful and unifying construct for understanding schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology. Questionnaire measures have been widely used to assess schizotypy and have greatly informed our understanding of the construct. However, available measures suffer from a number of limitations, including lack of a clear conceptual framework, outdated wording, unclear factor structure, and psychometric shortcomings. The MSS is based on current conceptual models and taps positive, negative, and disorganized dimensions of schizotypy. The derivation sample included 6265 participants sampled from four universities and Amazon Mechanical Turk. A separate sample of 1000 participants from these sources was used to examine the psychometric properties of the final subscales. Scale development employed classical test theory, item response theory, and differential item function methods. The positive schizotypy and negative schizotypy subscales contain 26 items each, and the disorganized schizotypy subscale contains 25 items. The psychometric properties were almost identical in the derivation and validation samples. All three subscales demonstrated good to excellent reliability, high item-scale correlations, and good item and test curve characteristics. The MSS appears to provide a promising measure for assessing schizotypy.

This article reports on the development and psychometric properties of a brief version of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale (MSS-B). The MSS-B contains 38 items that assess positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy. The scale was derived from the full-length Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale, and the positive, negative, and disorganized subscales were designed to provide the same content coverage as the original subscales. Scale development involved a derivation sample (n = 6265) and a separate cross-validation sample (n = 1000), both drawn from four universities and Amazon Mechanical Turk. The MSS-B was derived using classical test theory, item response theory, and differential item functioning. The three subscales exhibited high internal-consistency reliability, good item- and model-fit, good test information functions, and expected patterns of intercorrelations and associations with neuroticism, sex, and race/ethnicity. This pattern of findings was almost identical between the derivation and cross-validation samples. Furthermore, the pattern of findings was closely comparable for MSS-B subscales and the full-length MSS subscales. The MSS-B appears to offer a promising brief measure for assessing schizotypy.

The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Schizotypal Ambivalence Scale (SAS) in a sample of 1798 young adults. The study also investigated the concurrent validity of the measure for identifying schizophrenic-like symptoms in a sample of 43 high scorers on the scale and 43 control participants. Previous findings indicated that high scores on the SAS were associated with schizophrenia-spectrum pathology in a sample of schizotypic young adults selected with other measures. However, this is the first study to assess schizophrenic-like psychopathology in a sample selected using the SAS. The SAS has good internal consistency (coefficient alpha = 0.84) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation = 0.74 across 9 weeks). As hypothesized, the ambivalence group exceeded the control group on interview ratings of schizotypal, schizoid, paranoid, psychotic-like, and negative symptoms, as well as exhibiting poorer overall functioning. The SAS seems to be a promising measure of schizotypy in young adults.

Ten measures of schizotypic symptoms were examined for their utility in identifying subgroups of schizotypes in a clinical population. Factor analysis extracted four factors which accounted for 58% of the variance. Clustering subjects produced three distinct subgroups, each characterized by a particular pattern of schizotypic symptoms. These two different techniques showed some overlap in the observed patterning of schizotypic symptoms. These results address the issue of heterogeneity of schizotypes (and possibly schizophrenics) by suggesting that potentially meaningful subgroups of schizotypes may exist.

We administered the Body Sensations Questionnaire. Health Hardiness Index. Panic Attack Questionnaire, and the Symptom Checklist 90-R to college students (n = 71) who either reported or did not report a family history of panic disorder. Participants who reported a family history of panic disorder reported significantly less perceived control over their health status. a greater fear of bodily arousal, and greater frequency of unexpected panic attacks compared to participants without such a history, although no significant group differences were detected for Symptom Checklist-96-R scales that measure negative emotional experiences. After controlling for personal history of panic, differences between the positive family history group remained only for the control over health measure. We discuss the results, as preliminary evidence that certain cognitive responses are overrepresented in self-classified first-degree relatives of persons with panic disorder.

The preattentive visual information processing of hypothetically psychosis-prone college subjects was evaluated using three different paradigms, target detection (n = 57), visual suffix effect (n = 57), and configural superiority effect (n = 68). It was hypothesized that anhedonic subjects would show the same perceptual organization deficits reported in process schizophrenics and that perceptual aberration-magical ideation subjects and depressed subjects would perform similarly to control subjects. In each study, anhedonics performed similarly to each comparison group, even though there was adequate power to detect performance differences if they existed. A framework for understanding the visual information-processing deficits of schizophrenics and high-risk subjects is proposed.

The relationship between several measures of schizotypic signs and the reported frequency of nightmares was evaluated in a college student population. A significant positive relationship to nightmare frequency was found for three of the four schizotypy measures (perceptual aberration, intense ambivalence, and somatic symptoms). The observed relationships appeared to be stronger for women than for men. There was a negative relationship between physical anhedonia and nightmare frequency. The results are discussed within the context of object relations theory utilizing an ego boundary model and are consistent with previous research independently implicating boundary impairment in the etiology of both phenomena.

The central thesis of this article is that a successful academic career, which is based largely on the quality or importance of one's scholarly work and teaching skill, can be enhanced by effective networking. Networking is defined as the set of strategies academic psychologists use to increase their visibility among and interactions with other professionals. We point to the recent focus on networking skills in the fields of business and career development and argue that little attention is given to such skills in the graduate training of psychologists. To remedy this, we describe several networking strategies that may be helpful for the budding academic psychologist.

The perception of trait relationships was measured in both schizotypic and control college subjects (N = 46) by use of a similarity rating method. Schizotypic and control subjects were selected on the basis of their scores on four scales of schizotypy: Physical Anhedonia, Perceptual Aberration, Intense Ambivalence, and Somatic Symptoms. Schizotypes as a group were more variable in their ratings of trait relationships than were controls. When each scale was considered separately, only perceptual aberrators as a group were as consistent in their ratings of trait relationships as control subjects. These findings support the hypothesis that schizotypes fail to share the semantic trait structure accepted by most normal subjects and may be a possible explanation for previous findings of social deficits in schizotypes.