Logic in Distortion: Attributions of Causality and Responsibility Among Schizophrenics

Three experiments were conducted to examine the attributions of responsibility and causality made by schizophrenic patients. In the first study, paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics responded to a modified version of the Shaw and Sulzer (1964) attribution vignettes. Attributions of responsibility to the stimulus person in the vignette increased from the level of association through the level of intentionality and then decreased at the level of justifiability, paralleling the findings typically obtained from normal subjects. In the second study, the same groups of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics attributed causality and blame to a stimulus person who was either similar to or different from them, with these attributions gathered both before and after the playing of a tape-recorded incident of aversive maternal control. Results showed attributional effects among both patient groups. In the third study, the attributions of causality for symptoms made by a different group of undifferentiated schizophrenics were compared to the attributions for the same symptoms made by a group of affective patients and a group of psychiatrists. Among patients there was overattribution to medication on some symptoms, but not on others. Together, the three studies show a remarkable consistency in the attributions made by schizophrenic patients.