Genetics, environment and psychopathology / editors, Sarnoff A. Mednick [and others].
- Date:
- 1974
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Genetics, environment and psychopathology / editors, Sarnoff A. Mednick [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
20/364 page 4
![4 Sarnoff A. Mednick and Thomas F. McNeil and normals produced differences identical to those found for schizo¬ phrenics and normals, we might tend to attribute the schizophrenic- normal differences to the effects of institutionalization rather than some intrinsic quality of the schizophrenic. Variables such as institutionalization and drug effects may be termed epiphenomenal. When these epiphenomenal correlates of schizophrenia are studied for their own sake, we find that they have important effects on perception (Silverman et al., 1966), psychological adjustment (Knupfer et al., 1966), family harmony (Grain et al., 1966a, 1966b), personality tests (Braginsky et al., 1966), and interview data (Pokor- ny, 1962). Yet, almost no research on the schizophrenic takes these consequents into account when planning for a control group. Be¬ cause of this, most research on schizophrenics runs a great risk of ascribing results to the variable of schizophrenia when actually some part of the differences observed may be due to one or more of this myriad of consequents. For example, in discussing a study in stimulus generalization, Mednick and Freedman (1960) stated, Using the dimension of space [he] found that schizophrenics generalized more than normals. Mednick, implying that generalization is important in etiology, neglected to consider the fact that his schizophrenics had been hospitalized 119.05 months while his normal control group had been hospitalized only 2.18 months. In this manner, while attempting to study some aspects of schizophrenia, Mednick could have been, un¬ wittingly, chiefly investigating the effects of long-term institution¬ alization. Three research methods Most psychological and psychiatric research on the etiology of schizo¬ phrenia takes one of three forms: (a) observation of already schizo¬ phrenic individuals, (b) observation of the families of schizophrenics, or (c) inspection of earlier records reporting on childhood behavior of adult schizophrenics. We shall discuss the methodological problems of each of these approaches.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18032618_0021.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
