Maturity of personality and family communication

The psychodynamic and the communication/systemic perspectives are commonly considered as two entirely different approaches to psychopathology. The current study is an effort to bridge these opposing perspectives empirically. Maturity of personality, measured according to psychoanalytic principles by the Consensus Couples Rorschach, and relationship control in family communication, as measured by a new coding system (RCC) in an observational study, were related. The results indicate that low level of maturity is associated with egocentric and self-disqualifying communication in situations of conflict, but not in situations involving no or moderate conflict. Additionally, mature wives were prone to react to situations involving perceptual conflict by communicating dominantly, whereas immature wives communicated in more submissive ways. Reversely, the more mature the husbands were, the more they displayed a submissive style of communicating when in conflict.

Relationships between personality development, interpersonal perception and communication in parents of schizophrenics, psychiatric controls and normal subjects

Employing a family interaction paradigm, the psychodynamic development of personality (Consensus Spouse-Rorschach, CSR), mutuality in interpersonal perception (Interpersonal Perception Method), and feedback mechanisms in communication (the Confirmation-Disconfirmation Coding System) were investigated. The subjects were 66 parents (33 couples) whose offspring were as follows: 12 schizophrenics (RDC, DSM-III, DSM-III-R), 12 with other mental disorders, and 9 subjects with no mental disorder. Communication was observed in 2 situations, using CSR and the Colour Conflict Method. Feedback mechanisms in parent communication, previously found to be associated with offspring mental disorder, were associated both with lack of mutuality in interpersonal perception and low personality development. Lack of mutuality was associated with low parent personality development. The results emphasize the usefulness of monitoring both parent personality development (family structure), mutuality in interpersonal perception (family phenomenology), and communication (family behaviour) when assessing interaction in families of patients with severe mental disorder. They also point to a need for theoretical integration between the different concepts of family interaction of different clinical and theoretical traditions.

Disconfirmatory feedback in families of schizophrenics

A new approach to the study of family communication and psychopathology, in particular schizophrenia, using Saugstad's theory about use of language as its point of departure is presented. Conflicts between family members were observed and measured using a new unrevealed difference technique, the Colour Conflict Method (CCM). Communication was analysed in terms of continuous feedback processes, using the new computerized method, Confirmation-Disconfirmation Coding System (CONDIS). Feedback mechanisms in the internal communication of families of schizophrenics, normals, and non-schizophrenic pathological controls (n = 21) are described. The findings show that families of schizophrenics lack the ability to adapt their communication to changing situational requirements. When conflicts were introduced, families of schizophrenics-in contrast to non-schizophrenics within the extended schizophrenia spectrum and normals-increased their frequency of disconfirmatory feedback reactions instead of expressing disagreements openly. This was due to active disqualifications occurring between the parents and from the parents towards their schizophrenic offspring, who reacted with incomprehensible egocentric communication acts.