Narrative evaluation strategies as metacognitive task in subjects with schizophrenia

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to explore the differences in the evaluative component of the narrative structure in subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia compared to subjects diagnosed with affective psychosis. Methods: The present investigation was descriptive, not experimental and it included the analysis of the narration evaluative components of interviews of 25 individuals with psychiatric diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia and 25 of chronic affective psychosis, matched by age, gender and sociodemographic characteristics. Results: The relationship between diagnosis and type of evaluation showed statistically significant results with a chi square value of 39.880a (p < 0.00). It was possible to observe that in the schizophrenia there is a greater inhibition in the elaboration of expressions that imply opinions and that narratives tended to identify facts regardless of how they affected subjects, suggesting a limitation of intersubjective function. Conclusion: The diagnostic variable confirms that in schizophrenia there is a functional deterioration in the process of elaborating narrative structures especially in the articulation of the evaluative component. In the case of the affective psychosis group, superficial dysfunctions were manifested, without compromising their performance in the evaluation of narratives.