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R M Blakar

Publications and source records attributed to R M Blakar.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1986

Schizophrenic patients and their parents. A multimethod design and the findings from an illustrative empirical study of cognitive disorders and communication deviances.

The research design and main findings from a multimethod research project, in which cognitive disorders in schizophrenic patients and communication deviances in their parents were examined, are presented. Non-paranoid schizophrenics manifested cognitive disturbances on a majority of the variables examined, while paranoid schizophrenics did not. Likewise, parents of non-paranoid schizophrenics revealed significantly more communication deviance than parents of paranoid schizophrenics as well as the control groups (normal and "neurotics"). Egocentrism appeared to be a prominent characteristic of the communication of non-paranoid schizophrenics' parents. Conspicuous among the cognitive deficits in their offspring were attentional disturbances. Support for the existence of a link between the parents' communication and the offsprings' cognitive functioning was found by correlation- and regression analyses.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Egocentrism and inefficiency in the communication of families containing schizophrenic members.

Conceptual and methodological shortcomings of research on family and interactional psychopathology are owing mainly to the use of vague and ill-defined concepts of communication. Based on a theory of language use and communication within general social and cognitive psychology (e.g., Heider, Mead, Piaget, Rometvet) Blakar has outlined a methodology by which interaction is analyzed in terms of how and to what extent the participants (families) manage or fail to cope with the various prerequisites for successful communication under varying situational conditions. A study illustrating this program is presented: The interaction of twelve families, six with (Group S) and six without (Group N) a schizophrenic member, is analyzed in Blakar's communication conflict situation with respect to the members' ability to decenter and take the perspective of each other. Group S proved significantly more egocentric, their egocentric attitudes resulting, as would be expected, in very inefficient communication. Moreover, Group S were not able to adapt their pattern of communication to the changing situational requirements. Finally, the subtle interplay between the capacities and behavior of the individual members and the family system is illustrated: the egocentrism of the members resulted in "closed systems," and the closed systems hindered adequate feedback, forcing the members to decenter.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Schizophrenia and communication efficiency. A modified replication taking ecological variation into consideration.

An earlier study (Sølvberg & Blakar (1975)) testified to subtle differences in communication efficiency over different communication situations by parental couples with and without schizophrenic offspring. The present study is offered as a replication of this study, but whereas the participating couples in the original study were recruited from a big city (Oslo), the parental couples in the present replication come from a typical rural district. The main findings of the original study are reproduced, but the very same method which was sensitive with respect to the "normality-schizophrenia" variable, also proved to be highly sensitive with regard to the cultural variation represented by the rural-urban dimension. Therefore, the present study is used as basis for discussing more general methodological problems involved in communication-oriented studies on psychopathology. In particular the underlying (often implicit) model of "normal communication", from which pathological communication deviates, is seriously questioned.

Communication↗
PubMed1978

Communication in the family of the asthmatic child. An experimental approach.

The literature is reviewed in order to see what support, direct or indirect, was to be found for adopting a communication perspective in gaining insight into childhood asthma. A study is presented on the communication (pattern and efficiency) of parents having an asthmatic child in a standardized communication situation in which a communication conflict is induced. Parents of children with severe chronic heart disease were used as control couples. As expected, the parents having asthmatic children proved to be a heterogeneous group with respect to communication efficiency. Two-thirds of the couples showed a communication as efficient as that of the control couples, whereas one third demonstrated an extremely inefficient communication in that they failed totally to cope with the experimentally induced communication conflict.

Asthma↗