THE REFERENTIAL THINKING SCALE AS A MEASURE OF SCHIZOTYPY - SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL CONSTRUCT-VALIDATION

This article describes the development of a measure of schizotypic ref erential thinking. The authors present a 34-item questionnaire that in cludes a wide variety of referential thoughts and experiences, includi ng both simple and guilty ideas of reference. The Referential Thinking Scale (REF) displays adequate internal consistency and strong relatio ns with other measures of schizotypy, such as the well-known Perceptua l Aberration and Magical Ideation Scales. Item-level factor analysis o f the REF suggests that referential thought is multidimensional in nat ure, including both simple and guilty ideas of reference components. T he REF displays minimal relations with acquiesence, social desirabilit y. and sex. The REF does not appear to assess normative personality co nstructs that involve heightened self-awareness such as self-monitorin g, self-consciousness, or social desirability, nor does it appear to b e unduly related to psychological state variables. The REF was develop ed in order to provide an additional schizotypy measure for use in lar ge-scale screening efforts and other schizotypy studies.