title: The Janus face of schizotypy: enhanced spiritual connection or existential despair?
abstract: It has been asserted that schizotypy has a negative relationship with subjective well-being. By employing a multidimensional measure of spiritual well being with 400 British College students we report a more complex relationship. The Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Version were used and analysis made use of Canonical Correlational Analysis. Results suggested that two distinct relationships emerged between schizotypy and spirituality. First, a positive association between cognitive/perceptual features of schizotypy and spiritual connectedness emerged. Second a more global negative relationship between feelings of spiritual isolation and despair was found for all aspects of schizotypy. These findings challenge the previous literature based on one-dimensional subjective well being measures which have found only a negative relationship. However, the positive association between connectedness and cognitive-perceptual aspects of schizotypy raises import questions about the possible benefit of certain types of schizotypal experience.
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Addiction Research (Grüner Kreis Society), Vienna, Austria; University Clinic for Psychiatry, Medical University, Graz, Austria. Electronic address: human.unterrainer@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Human-Friedrich
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Unterrainer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew James
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Early adulthood; Psychological well-being; Schizotypy; Spirituality