Assessment of Change in Conventional and Unconventional Thought Processes of Schizophrenics

Summary A creativity test was adapted to the measurement of schizophrenic thought processes. Schizophrenics and nonpsychotic psychiatric patients were asked to give practical and unusual uses for items in Guilford's Alternate Uses Test. Responses were scored as conventional (concrete), imaginative (abstract), or autistic. Schizophrenics did not differ from nonpsychotics in frequency nor pattern of conventional responses. However, nonpsychotics gave proportionately more imaginative uses following unusual uses instructions while schizophrenics gave proportionately more autistic responses. Schizophrenics maintained a significantly elevated autistic response level regardless of subsequent requests to be practical.