title: Examination of Anomalous World Experience: A Report on Reliability.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The EAWE (Examination of Anomalous World Experience) is a newly developed, semi-structured interview that aims to capture anomalies of subjectivity, common in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, that pertain to experiences of the lived world, including space, time, people, language, atmosphere, and certain existential attitudes. By contrast, previous empirical studies of subjective experience in schizophrenia have focused largely on disturbances in self-experience.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the reliability of the EAWE, including internal consistency and interrater reliability.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the course of developing the EAWE, two distinct studies were conducted, one in the United States and the other in Slovenia. Thirteen patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum or mood disorders were recruited for the US study. Fifteen such patients were recruited for the Slovenian study. Two live interviewers conducted the EAWE in the US. The Slovenian interviews were completed by one live interviewer with a second rater reviewing audiorecordings of the interview. Internal consistency and interrater reliability were calculated independently for each study, utilizing Cronbach's α, Spearman's ρ, and Cohen's κ.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Each study yielded high internal consistency (Cronbach's α >0.82) and high interrater reliability for total EAWE scores (ρ > 0.83; average κ values were at least 0.78 for each study, with EAWE domain-specific κ not lower than 0.73).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The EAWE, containing world-oriented inquiries into anomalies in subjective experience, has adequate reliability for use in a clinical or research setting.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Conerty
authors.forename: Borut
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Skodlar
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pienkos
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zadravek
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Byrom
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sass
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007802:Language; D008016:Life Change Events; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology