An hypothesis concerning the relation between drive and size estimation for paranoids and nonparanoids within specific schizophrenic subgroups.

S%mrnary.-The present paper describes the relation between two skinresistance measures and size estimation for previously described schizophrenic subgroups; in the acute poor and chronic good subgroups size estimation was positively related to drive for paranoids and negatively related for nonparanoids. Paranoids in the chronic poor subgroup exhibited a negative size estimation-drive relationship. This was considered as due to reduction in drive which allowcd emergence of a functioning perceptual organization that permitted S to attend to the task and show a corresponding increase in size estimation. In previous work (Magaro, 1969, 1970) which examined skin resistance and size estimation for schizophrenics who were divided in terms of chronicity, premorbid adjustment (good-poor) and diagnosis (paranoid-nonparanoid), specific schizophrenic subgroups exhibited differing levels of basal skin resistance and size estimation. As compared with normals, chronic goods underestimated while acute poors tended to underestimate and chronic poors and acute goods tended to overestimate. In regard to basal level, acute poors exhibited the highest basal level while chronic goods exhibited the lowest. An interesting trend was noted in the performance of the paranoids in the underestimating acute-poor and chronic-good groups; they displayed larger size estimations than the nonparanoids and exhibited higher basal levels. The differences between paranoids and nonparanoids suggested a possible relarionship between drive and size estimation. To pursue the relationship further, Pearson product-momenr correlation coefficienrs were derived between basal level, GSR, size estimation, and amount of tranquilizing medication for all subgroups. The only significant correlations between basal level and size estimation were exhibited by che chronic-poor paranoids (I = .91, n = 5, p < .05) and the acute poors (r = .57, n = 15, fi < .05) which was mainly due to the acute poor paranoids (r = .85, n = 5, p < .05). Significant values for size estimation and GSR were exhibited by the acute-poor paranoids (s = 38, n = 3, p < .05) and the chronic poors (r = .70, n = 12, p < .O5) which was mainly due to the chronic-poor paranoids (T = .93, n = 3, fi < .Or). To summarize, the paranoids in the chronic-good subgroup exhibit a higher, morenormal basal level and a larger, more-normal size estimation. The paranoids in the acutepoor subgroup exhibit a higher, above-normal basal level and a larger more-normal size estimation. In considering the skin resistance measure as a measure of drive, ic may be hypothesized that paranoids in both subgroups increase their size estimations with an increase in drive. The correlations between medication and size estimation amplified this relarionship as the only significant values were obtained for the nonparanoids in the same rwo subgroups, chronic-good nonparanoids (s = -96, n = 7, $ < .05) and acute-poor nonparanoids (r = -.91, n = 8, p < .05). Whereas paranoids in the acute poor and chronic good subgroups increased their size estimations when drive (basal level-GSR) increased, nonparanoids increased their size estimations when drive (medication) decreased. The difficulty in considering the skin resistance and medication measures as reflective of