A Dimensional Approach To Schizotypy

This timely volume explores the range of personality traits and psychosocial deficits which are associated with the broadly defined construct of schizotypy. Describing schizotypy as a phenomenon that can be located on a continuum ranging from sub-clinical states to severe disorders, the editors have brought together experts in this field to discuss approaches to assessment, conceptualization, and treatment. This volume aims to provide a unique and clinically oriented perspective on schizotypy as a feature of personality and psychopathology. An essential resource for professionals, researchers, and academics the reader will gain knowledge of: Underlying maladaptive traits that can emerge as schizotypy Dimensional and transdiagnostic approaches to psychopathology Relationship to metacognition, mentalizing, attachment, self-criticism and interpersonal criticism

For several decades there has been an increasing move towards viewing the psychotic illnesses from a dimensional perspective, seeing them as continuous with healthy functioning. The idea, concentrating mostly on schizophrenia, has generated considerable theoretical debate as well as empirical research, conducted under the rubric of 'schizotypy'. This book offers a timely discussion of the most significant themes and developments in this research area. Divided into four key sections which represent current concerns in schizotypy research – Measurement, Brain and Biology; Development and Environment; Consequences and Outcomes; and Future Directions – chapters reflect a broad range of approaches and discuss varied theoretical perspectives on schizotypy. Topics include: cognitive and perceptual biases psychometric assessments creativity and schizotypy genetic associations. developmental perspectives Schizotypy: New dimensions will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the area of psychotic illnesses, as well as professionals including psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who are concerned with the basis of serious mental disorder. The book will inform readers who are new to the topic and will update and expand the knowledge base of those more experienced in the field.

This book is devoted to schizotypal personality. It provides a comprehensive overview of our knowledge from some of the world's leading researchers in the field, and includes reviews of genetics, neurodevelopment, assessment, psychophysiology, neuropsychology and brain imaging. Central themes are the exploration of categorical and dimensional approaches to the understanding of schizotypal disorder and its relationship to schizophrenia. Valuable introductory and concluding chapters set in context the sometimes divergent opinions and findings presented by the book's contributors and there are reviews of methodological issues and assessment schedules for the benefit of researchers in the field. In setting out to answer, from phenomenological, psychological and neurobiological perspectives, the fundamental question 'What is schizotypal disorder?' and to develop coherent etiological models, this book will serve as an authoritative resource for clinicians and researchers interested in this major personality disorder.

The central theme of this book presents a challenging and controversial new view of psychosis--that the features of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia actually lie on a continuum with, and form part of, normal behavior and experience. The dispositional or "schizotypal" traits associated with psychotic disorders, while increasing one's chances for mental illness, also lead to positive outcomes such as enhanced creativity or spiritual experience. Each aspect of this theme is supported by extensive experimental and clinical evidence, questioning the conventional medical wisdom that treats psychotic illness in the narrow context of neurological disease. The result is an authoritative and provocative overview of an important topic in psychological research and clinical practice.

This is the first book to address the clinical and neurobiological interface between schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is growing evidence that obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia are prevalent, persistent and characterized by a distinct pattern of familial inheritance, neurocognitive deficits and brain activation. This text provides guidelines for differential diagnosis of schizophrenic patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and patients with primary OCD alongside poor insight, psychotic features or schizotypal personality. Written by a leading expert in the coexistence of obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenic phenomena, Schizo-Obsessive Disorder uses numerous case studies to present diagnostic guidelines and to describe a recommended treatment algorithm, demystifying this complex disorder and aiding its effective management. The book is essential reading for psychiatrists, neurologists and the wider range of multidisciplinary mental health practitioners.

In recent years, the assumption that there is a significant connection between normal psychological and biological differences and the development of psychological disorders has grown and research in this area has developed rapidly. This textbook, written by internationally known psychologists with expertise in both the areas of abnormal and differential psychology, aims to integrate evidence and idea from healthy personality and temperament on the one hand and psychological disorders on the other. This is achieved by viewing personality traits as predispositions to disorder, and by questioning how far the causes of various disorders can be seen as an extension or exaggeration of processes underlying normal personality or temperament. These main themes are discussed using a biological perspective, i.e., based on the theory that personality can be deconstructed into a number of basic dimensions (of biological origin) that also act as vulnerability factors for disorder. This is a second-level textbook for undergraduate students of psychology, but will also be recommended for health professionals and their trainees, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and nurses.

Schizophrenia From A Neurocognitive Perspective: Probing the Impenetrable Darkness is a sole-authored work and the first book to provide an integrative framework for the theme of neurocognition in schizophrenia. Recent advances in schizophrenia research have brought about a fundamental shift in the way the disorder is viewed. Schizophrenia is seen increasingly as a neurocognitive illness. This view has its roots in both the psychological and medical models, but it goes beyond them. The book uses neurocognitive concepts to guide the reader through neurochemical, neuroanatomical, and clinical features of schizophrenia. It also presents clinically relevant information on the interrelationships among neurocognitive deficits, treatment, and outcome. Both students and practitioners will benefit from learning about rapid advances in schizophrenia research and treatment that are dramatically changing our view of this disorder.

As editor of the Springer-Verlag Series in Psychopathology, Lauren Alloy knew of my work in cognitive psychophysiology to study processing anomalies in nonpatients at risk for psychopathology and invited me to edit a book for the series. This evolved into an opportunity to address an aspect of the unfortunate nature-nurture battle in the field, which too often emphasizes genes and macrolevel environment. Extreme positions are often taken (sometimes unwittingly), even though a great deal of the actual research is between the extremes, including laboratory psycho logical and psychophysiological studies. There is more to biology than genes and even more to it than things like brain imaging, enlarged ventricles, glucose metabolism rate, and receptor density, which have received a great deal of attention in recent years. of studies at the One goal of this book is to provide demonstrations intersection between psychology and biology via psychophysiology. In parallel, another goal is to showcase solid psychological research that may bear directly on what are often considered biological issues. For example, Chapter 4, by Walker and colleagues, can be considered classically psychological, because the authors focus on overt behavior. Yet some of the importance of their work is its implication of a particular biological process involved in the gross motor behavior anomalies they have identified in the etiology of schizophrenia. Similarly, whereas in Chapter 7, Klein and Anderson articulate the behavioral high-risk paradigm quite well, in Chapter 10, Yee relies on their approach in pursuing psycho physiological research on risk for depression.