Assessing Social Functioning in Individuals with Schizophrenia with the Brief Impression Questionnaire (BIQ) (2016)

Undergraduates: Isabelle Lanser, Julia Browne

Faculty Advisor: David Penn
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the Brief Impression Questionnaire (BIQ), a novel measure designed to utilize impression formation in the assessment of social functioning in a schizophrenia population. To achieve this goal, we will examine the factor structure of the BIQ, as well as explore the correlations between the extracted factor scores and social cognition and social functioning measures. A total of 104 (47 controls) individuals participated in this study. These participants were each rated on the BIQ by one of eighteen research assistants. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed separate factor structures for the control (one-factor solution) and patient (two-factor solution) groups. The factor for the control group was labeled "Composite." The factors for the patient group were labeled "Agreeableness" and "Willingness to Engage." Both the Agreeableness and Willingness to Engage factor were positively correlated with informant reports of patient social functioning. For the healthy control group, the Composite factor was positively correlated with self-reports of social functioning and social cognition. These results provide evidence that impression formation may be a viable tool in the field of schizophrenia research.