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A recent trend evident in the literature on schizophrenia appears to focus upon variations in the qualities of maladaptive object related behavior evident in the interpersonal functioning of schizophrenic patients. These qualities of interpersonal behavior have relevance for the understanding of intrapsychic factors in mental functioning, particularly when seen from the structural and adaptive metapsychological points of view.
In the present paper, two groups of chronic schizophrenic patients exhibiting widely differing, although highly stable forms of maladaptive object-related behavior (i.e., Isolation vs. Belligerence) were given psychological tests and seen in a clinical interview which was video-recorded. Their test- and interview behavior were studied with regard to their relative capacities to represent objects, that is, to transform experience into a verbal form. Three measures utilized in this study were the Stroop Color-Word task, a system of coding language which provides a measure of linguistic complexity in sentence construction; and a system of coding kinetic behavior which provides a measure of communicative and noncommunicative speech-related gestures.