| Social skills training is one of the most widely used treatments, besides chemotherapy, in the rehabilitation of persons suffering from schizophrenia. However, the precise nature of schizophrenic patients' social deficiencies is still unknown, especially with regards to paralinguistic skills that play an important function in social competence. This study used the social comparison method to determine the nature of the paralinguistic deficiencies of persons suffering from schizophrenia. Patients were compared to a non-clinical group of subjects from the same community to obtain an objective and ecologically valid criterion. Five paralinguistic variables were analyzed (number of words, length of speech, speech rate, filled pauses, and speech disturbances) in four different role-plays. The latter included six to ten standardized verbal exchanges and were used to evaluate situational effects. Considering the complexity of social behavior, the correlation between paralinguistic variables and nonverbal variables was also considered. Results showed that the schizophrenic group produced significantly fewer words, their rate of speech was slower and they showed significantly more filled pauses and speech disturbances than the non-clinical group. On the other hand, there was no significant difference regarding the length of speech. Results also showed that situational effects did not significantly differ between the two groups on most paralinguistic variables. The only exception was in the number of words spoken for which an interaction effect was observed. Finally, correlational analyses showed that for both groups, the arms movements were correlated with the production of speech. However, it seemed that the nonverbal and paralinguistic variables were less strongly associated with each other within the schizophrenic patient group than within the community group. Overall, results of this study showed that the speech of schizophrenic persons was slower and less fluent than the speech of persons from the community. Persons suffering from schizophrenia generally seemed to be able to adjust their paralinguistic behavior according to situational demands, just like anyone else. Also, future researches are needed to look at the synchronization of the different elements of social competency of persons suffering from schizophrenia. Some clinical and methodological recommendations are discussed. |
