Discrimination of Anomalous Self-Experiences from Psychotic-Like Experiences and Dissociation: Relations with Self-Processing and Schizotypal Personality
Poster A10, Monday, October%208, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
David Cicero1; 1University of Hawaii at Manoa
Anomalous self-experiences are disturbances in the subjective experience of the self and have been shown to be related to the premorbid, prodromal, acute, and chronic phases of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Despite having a long history in psychopathology research, anomalous self-experiences are not explicitly represented in any major nosology of mental disorders. It is not clear from previous research whether anomalous self-experiences are distinct from other related symptoms such as psychotic-like experiences and dissociation. The current research aimed to examine whether anomalous self-experiences could be discriminated from psychotic-like experiences and dissociation using confirmatory factor analysis and examining differential relations with self-relevant information processing and negative and disorganized schizotypy. 761 nonclinical participants completed multiple measures of anomalous self-experiences, psychotic-like experiences, dissociation, self-relevant information processing, negative schizotypy, and disorganized schizotypy. A model with separate anomalous self-experiences, psychotic-like experiences, and dissociation factors fit the data well and fit better than models with only two or one factor. The anomalous self-experience factor as associated with self-concept clarity, self-esteem, self-liking, and self-competence, while the psychotic-like experiences factor was associated with negative schizotypy, disorganized schizotypy, ideas of reference, excessive social anxiety, suspiciousness and self-consciousness. Taken together, these results suggest that anomalous self-experiences, psychotic-like experiences, and dissociation are distinct constructs that are differentially related to self-processing and other symptoms of schizotypy. Future research may examine whether anomalous self-experiences should be added to nosologies of psychotic-spectrum disorders.
Topic Area: Diagnosis and Phenomenology