Originality in Problem Solving as a Function of Anxiety and Withdrawal in Schizophrenics.

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Abstract
One characteristic of personality disturbance may be a reduced ability to cope with problems in an original manner. To test this possibility, negative relationships were hypothesized between originality in problem solving and two pervasive clinical variables, (a) anxiety and (b) social withdrawal (SW). Fifty male schizophrenics (mean age, 44; mean hospitalization, 9 years) served as subjects. The subjects were rated by four staff members on anxiety and SW. A paper-pencil inventory (reliability .95), developed by McReynolds and Acker (1962), provided a second measure of anxiety. Two measures of problem solving were used: a "Life Problems Test" (LPT) and Form A of the Howard (1961) Maze Tests. It can be further hypothesized that the negative correlation between SW and LPT should be greater for the interpersonal problems than for the noninterpersonal problems. The findings fail to support the first hypothesis concerning anxiety, but they are in accord with the hypothesized negative relationship between SW and originality in problem solving. There is some evidence that socially withdrawn individuals are less able to cope in an original manner with problems of an interpersonal nature than with noninterpersonal problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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