Generalization of the Effects of Activity Therapy and Social Skills Training on the Social Behavior of Low Functioning Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

Activity Therapy (AT) and social skills training (SST) have been widely used by occupational therapists to improve the social functioning of schizophrenic patients, but the extent to which treatment effects generalize to behavior in naturlistic social settings is largely unknown. Eight patients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for schizophrenia were assigned to one of two training groups who received AT then SST within an intra-subject replication design to assess generalization of treatment effects. Improvements in social skills were evident in the training setting following SST, but there was no effect of AT. Neither treatment produced a sustained change in social behavior in a naturalistic social setting, though there was some evidence of improvements on global measures of clinical psychopathology. Methods to promote and assess generalization of treatment effects are discussed.