INDEPENDENT LIVING SKILLS AND HYPOTHETICAL PSYCHOSIS PRONENESS

This study examines the relationship between independent living skills and perceptual aberration-magical ideation, a measure of hypothetical psychosis proneness. Interpersonal and community living skills were a ssessed with the Self-Assessment Guide (SAG), a self-report measure of interpersonal skills and relationships, leisure arid financial suppor t, as well as health, affect, and control of aggression. Problem-solvi ng skills were assessed with an analogue task, the Means-Ends Problem Solving Procedure (MEPS). Hypothetically psychosis-prone respondents r eported lower levels of skills on the SAG, particularly in the interpe rsonal area, but did not demonstrate problem-solving deficits on the M EPS. The results suggest a link between deficits in interpersonal inde pendent living skills and a hypothetical predisposition to psychopatho logy. This indicates that skills deficits are unlikely to arise solely as secondary reactions to symptomatology, hospitalization, or otherwi se disrupted community adjustment. Implications for community-based pr eventive programs are also discussed.