The Role of Personal Identity in Psychotic Symptoms: a Study With the Repertory Grid Technique

Over recent years, the importance of the sense of self and personal identity in psychopathology and its treatment has been highlighted. Several studies inspired in the Personal Construct Psychology framework have found a variety of identity characteristics in clinical conditions such as depression or eating disorders, but the evidence in schizophrenia and other psychotic related disorders is scarce. In addition, current psychological models of positive and negative symptoms highlight the influence of neurocognition, social cognition and self-concepts in the development and maintenance of psychotic experiences. Despite the recognized need of person-centered approaches to understand psychopathology processes in psychosis, psychological models for explaining psychotic symptoms have not explored sufficiently the role of this kind of person-centered measures. Aim 1\. To examine the influence of the structure of personal identity and other relevant cognitive factors in positive and negative symptoms Hypotheses 1. Positive symptoms will be influenced by dichotomous thinking style and construction of self as measured with the RGT. 2. Negative symptoms will be affected by the richness of the construct system as measured with the RGT.