EFFECT OF PRAISE AND CENSURE ON PERFORMANCE OF SCHIZOPHRENICS

Ss were 36 normals, 36 good, and 36 poor premorbid schizophrenics. Poor premorbids were shown to be primarily motivated to avoid censure and good premorbids to be relatively more sensitive to praise. It was demonstrated that when censure was used on a task with only 2 possible responses, poor premorbids performed better than good premorbids. The opposite relationship was demonstrated for the effects of praise, to which the good premorbids were more responsive. On a task with many responses, the praise or censure gave little information as to the correct response. On this task, censure was demonstrated to be relatively more disruptive to the poor premorbids than praise, but the opposite held for the good premorbids. Comparisons with neutral conditions and normal Ss were also made. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.