Divergent Thinking Abilities Across the Schizophrenic Spectrum and Other Psychological Correlates

Abstract

The literature on the connection between psychopathology and creativity is vast and recent research has focused on the relationship between the schizophrenic spectrum and creativity. The schizophrenic spectrum includes genetically related disorders that share certain symptom features. It has been suggested that schizotypal personality disorder, a disorder falling somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, is advantageous to creative performance, whereas schizophrenia, the disorder at the most extreme end of the spectrum, is detrimental to creativity. This study included individuals at every level of the schizophrenic spectrum, and opted for an operationally defined concept of creativity in the form of creative problem solving, specifically divergent thinking. Healthy controls, schizotypals, and individuals with schizophrenia took the Abbreviated Torrance Test (2007), a standardized measure of divergent thinking. It was predicted that those with schizophrenia would have significantly lower scores on divergent thinking than the other two groups and that schizotypals would outperform both those with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Part of the hypothesis was supported in that individuals with schizophrenia had lower divergent thinking scores than the other two groups although the schizotypal and healthy controls did not significantly differ in their divergent thinking scores. Healthy controls and schizotypals also took the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) for classification purposes. It was also the goal of this study to explore scales of the MCMI-III and their relationship to divergent thinking alone or in conjunction with schizotypy. Within the MCMI-III analyses, there was a significant interaction between the Bipolar manic Scale and the Schizotypal Scale.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Robert McFatter, Matthew Issaak, and Heather Key for their important contributions to the integrity of this study.

Notes

Note. Analyses based on N = 60.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.