title: Neurocognitive and social cognitive predictors of interpersonal skill in schizophrenia.
abstract: Social dysfunction is among the major criteria for receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and research indicates that the impairments in social functioning experienced by individuals with schizophrenia are strongly related to deficits in interpersonal skills. In turn, these deficits in interpersonal skills have been linked to impairments in general cognitive abilities and impairments in social cognition. This study explored the relationship between neurocognition, social cognition, and interpersonal skills in 49 outpatients with schizophrenia and 44 non-clinical control participants. Results indicate that individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated impaired performance across several domains of neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning as well as interpersonal skills. In addition, among the participants with schizophrenia, social cognition significantly contributed unique variance to interpersonal skill beyond that of neurocognition. This pattern was not observed in the non-clinical control sample. These findings have implications for the treatment of the disorder and represent an important step in understanding the role of social cognition in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270, USA.
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Pinkham
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Penn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D011594:Psychometrics; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic