THE EFFECT OF STRESSFUL AND PROTECTIVE COMMUNICATIVE EVENTS ON THE AUTONOMIC RESPONSE IN SCHIZOPHRENIC AND HEALTHY-PERSONS

Comparative single-case analyses of specific communicative features an d their physiological concomitants in two dialogues between (1) a heal thy male partner (A) and a healthy female index person (H), and (2) pa rtner A and a male schizophrenic index person (S) show similarities an d differences between persons H and S. Partner A's communicative react ions to the index person's stress reaction are classified as protector s, stressors or mixed; utterances by the index persons following their stress reaction are classified as self-modificatory. A chi(2) analysi s reveal no significant association between the category of utterance and the index person's physiological response in either conversation. However, in index persons H and S there are clear tendencies: increase s or non-decreases in activation accompany partner A's mixed or ambigu ous reactions, clear protectors and stressors are accompanied by a dec rease of activation. The main difference between index persons H and S lies in their frequency of self-modificatory utterances; despite bein g accompanied by activation decrease in both index persons H and S, se lf-modificatory reactions are comparably rare in index person S. The p rojection of these results onto a model of instrumental learning allow s formulation of tentative hypotheses to explain index person S's relu ctance to adopt a self-protective behaviour. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Lt d.