title: Exploring the latent structure of the Perceptual Aberration, Magical Ideation, and Physical Anhedonia Scales in a German sample.
abstract: The schizotypy model proposed by Meehl (1990) assumes a discontinuous distribution of schizophrenia liability. The "schizogene" is thought to determine if one is at risk for psychosis (i.e., whether one is a member of the taxon or its complement, which are considered to be the two latent classes). Using a German non-student sample (n = 809) we wanted to (1) replicate the results of prior research pertaining to the latent structure and base rate of schizotypy assessed by the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PER; Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1978), and (2) investigate whether the same holds true for two other prominent psychometric indices, the Magical Ideation Scale (MI; Eckblad & Chapman, 1983) and the Physical Anhedonia Scale (PhA; Chapman et al., 1976), if one uses the same kind of analysis--the MAXCOV-HITMAX analysis based on subsets of items (Meehl, 1973). Pertaining to PER and PhA, our results are in accordance with prior research showing a latent class structure and a base rate of about 12% for schizotypy. However, for MI, there was no evidence of a taxonic structure. Possible reasons for MI's negative results are discussed as well as the role of the concept "anhedonia."
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany. th.meyer@uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008273:Magic; D008297:Male; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010684:Philosophy; D011594:Psychometrics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires