Schizophrenics' mutual glance patterns.

The schizophrenic patient is often quite incommunicative about his current or past interpersonal relationships. Many workers feel that interviews with the schizophrenic's parents are also unreliable means of getting direct verbal information. Such pessimism is based on their experience that parents of schizophrenics often distort or delete information because of a concern with appearances, an inability to communicate adequately, or an investment in maintaining the patient status of their offspring. Difficulty in getting verbal data limits the therapist's understanding of the schizophrenic and his relationship with people. Observation of implicit communications through gestural interaction provides an important alternate means of getting information about interpersonal relationships which does not necessarily require the cooperation of the patient or his parents. As research in gestural communication improves, it should be possible to attempt a more detailed investigation of the interaction between the schizophrenic patients and others. Through the use of gestural or other implicitly communicative indices, such qualities as seductiveness, hostility, dependency, dominance, and others may ultimately prove to be measurable. Research has demonstrated that gestural behavior as a means of imlicit communication is indicative, in a gross sense, of the quality of interaction between people (Ekman, 1965; Exline and Winter, 1965). This study is concerned with mutual glances--moments in which two people look directly at each other at the same time so that their eyes meet.