Fyfe, S.; (2006) Theory of mind and its relation to schizotypy. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

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Abstract

Literature Review: Is Atypical Mentalizing a Risk Factor for Psychosis. The literature review summarises models and rationale underpinning investigation of atypical mentalizing as a risk factor for psychosis, and reviews longitudinal and cross-sectional studies relating to this. It concludes that, although differences in social cognition can be demonstrated to be associated with risk for psychosis, findings to date are mixed, and a focus on the presence or absence of mentalizing skills has limited exploration of the nature of these putative differences. Empirical Paper: Theory of Mind and its Relation to Schizotypy. This section reports an experimental comparison of the performance of high and low schizotypes on verbal and non-verbal measures of theory of mind. In the non-verbal domain, high schizotypes were significantly more likely than low schizotypes to read meaning in randomness and to impute agency or mental states where none were obviously implied. These tendencies were associated with positive schizotypy in particular. The findings are discussed in relation to Frith's (1992) cognitive model of schizophrenia and existing studies of theory of mind and schizotypy and schizophrenia. Critical Appraisal: A critical review of the process of the above study is presented. Observations made during the planning, data collection, data analysis and interpretation stages of the project are described, and suggestions are made for future research.

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