Schizophrenic patients and their parents. A multimethod design and the findings from an illustrative empirical study of cognitive disorders and communication deviances.

The research design and main findings from a multimethod research project, in which cognitive disorders in schizophrenic patients and communication deviances in their parents were examined, are presented. Non-paranoid schizophrenics manifested cognitive disturbances on a majority of the variables examined, while paranoid schizophrenics did not. Likewise, parents of non-paranoid schizophrenics revealed significantly more communication deviance than parents of paranoid schizophrenics as well as the control groups (normal and "neurotics"). Egocentrism appeared to be a prominent characteristic of the communication of non-paranoid schizophrenics' parents. Conspicuous among the cognitive deficits in their offspring were attentional disturbances. Support for the existence of a link between the parents' communication and the offsprings' cognitive functioning was found by correlation- and regression analyses.