Quantitative-Qualitative Analysis the Theory of Mind in Patients with Psychotic Disorder

Abstract

The theory of mind deficit, as the ability to attribute mental states to others, could explain some of the symptoms of patients with psychotic disorder. The poor estimate of the mental states of other people could explain paranoid thinking, some variations in speech, peculiarities in behavior and other symptoms found in patients with this diagnosis. The aim of the research is to describe the theory of mind in psychiatric patients, as schizophrenia can be seen as a disorder of mental states. The research sample consisted of 30 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Data are obtained via questionnaire method and evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. For research, we have used non-standardized mind-based verbal tasks. Based on frequency tables, psychiatric patients most failed in the theory of mind in dimensions - metaphors (60%) and mental states (50%). The other variables scored better while 30% of probands failed in the theory of mind of the 1st order, 26.7% of probands failed in the theory of second order, 16.7% in emotional states and 23.3% of all psychiatric patients in physical properties. Subsequently, we focused on the qualitative evaluation of individual areas. We found out, that patients scored the worst in the theory of mind tasks that refer to the mental states of others.