This is a preliminary report concerning size judgment of various body parts from photographs. Adapting a technique used by Weckowicz and Sommer (1960), 30 male schizophrenics and 30 males, hospitalized for nonpsychotic and non-psychosomatic reasons, were shown a series of photographs of a hand, foot, stomach, heart, and a baseball. These groups of Ss were comparable with respect to age, education, height, and weight. Photographs of each body part and the baseball were presented in alternating ascending-descending series to size. S's task was to state whether each picture was larger, smaller, or the size his own corresponding body part. In the case of the baseball pictures, comparison was made using a real baseball. Ss viewed the pictures while seated at a distance of 8 ft. in dim illumination of 1 candle power. A covering cloth prevented S from seeing his own body. A picture selected three times in a row being the size his own body organ constituted the criterion for S's image of that body part. At the condusion of experiment measurement was made of S's foot, toe to heel, and hand, third finger ro base at the wrist. Each S was also asked to guess, with his eyes dosed, the longest dimension in inches of his own heart and stomach. Controls and schizophrenics did not differ in actual hand or foot size, nor in mean height or weight. However, schizophrenics significantly exceeded controls in size judgment of all four body parts. Schizophrenics also significantly overestimated the size of their own hands and feet. Controls and schizophrenics did not differ on size judgment of a baseball, however. Schizophrenics also significantly exceeded controls on the total number of pictures seiected being the same size as their own body part, i.e., they have a much less definite image of their body area than do controls. The groups did not differ in this respect in their responses to the baseball pictures. Results indicate that schizophrenics suffer a loss in definiteness of body image. This vagueness of body image results in a ballooning of the schizophrenic's concept of h~s body. These results agree with those of Liebert, et al., (1958) who found that normals and schizophrenics, administered LSD, overestimated own body size although perceptions of external objects did not change. REFERENCES LIEBERT, R. S., WERNER, H., & WAPNER, S. Studies in the effect of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25). Arch. Neurol. C Psychiac., 1958, 79, 580-584.
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