Cognitive-style characteristics as criteria for differential diagnosis of delirium

We present a psychological study of the relationship of cognitive styles with the development of delusional formations, overvalued ideas and simulative products in order to develop criteria of delirium differential diagnosis. We examined 118 men, ordered at forensic psychological and psychiatric examination, among them delusional symptoms were found in 68 people, and overvalued ideas in 26 people, 24 people simulated delirium. As a method of research, we used pathopsychological experiment and projective techniques and methods that identify particular cognitive style (TAT, Rorschach, Torrance). We found that delusional patients, unlike those simulating a mental disorder, show field independence cognitive style combined with the rigidity that is characteristic also for patients with endogenous overvalued ideas. In personality disorders, we found combination of field independence with the flexibility or with rigidity.

1. Abul'khanova-Slavskaia K.A. Sotsial'noe myshlenie lichnosti: problemy i strategii issledovaniia [Social thinking person: problems and research strategies]. Psikhologicheskii zhurnal [Psychological Journal], 1994. № 4. P. 39–55.
2. Vygotskii L.S. Psikhologiia razvitiia cheloveka [Psychology of Human Development]. Moscow: Smysl, 2005. 1136 p.
3. Znachenie kognitivnykh stilei v sisteme psikhologicheskoi adaptatsii bol'nykh shizo-tipicheskimi rasstroistvami [Meaning of cognitive styles in the system of psychological adaptation of patients schizo-typical disorders] / M.A. Ditiatkovskii, T.A. Aristova, A.P. Kotsiubinskii, A.M. San'kova. Obozrenie psikhiatrii i meditsinskoi psikhologii im. V.M. Bekhtereva [V.M.Bekhterev`s Review of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology]. 2006. № 3. P. 26–29.
4. Karvasarskii B.D. Klinicheskaia psikhologiia [Clinical Psychology]. St.Petersburg.: Piter, 2004. 960 s.
5. Kritskaia V.P., Meleshko T.K., Poliakov Iu.F. Patologiia psikhicheskoi deiatel'nosti pri shizofrenii: motivatsiia, obshchenie, poznanie [Pathology of mental activity in schizophrenia: motivation, communication, cognition]. Moscow: Publishing House Moscow. University Press, 1991. 256 p.
6. Leont'ev D.A. Psikhologiia smysla: priroda, stroenie i dinamika smyslovoi real'nosti: 3-e izd., dop. [Psychology sense: the nature, structure and dynamics of semantic reality: 3rd ed., Ext.]. Moscow: Smysl, 2007. 511 p.
7. Petrova N.N., Zadvinskii V.Iu. Osobennosti psikhosotsial'noi adaptatsii i kognitiv-nyi stil' bol'nykh shizofreniei [Features coping and cognitive style in patients with schizophrenia]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta [Vestnik St. Petersburg University], Ser. 11. 2007. Vyp. 3. P. 56–63.
8. Eksperimental'no-psikhologicheskie issledovaniia patologii psikhicheskoi deiatel'nosti pri shizofrenii: Sb. statei [Experimental psychological research pathology of mental activity in schizophrenia: Sat articles]. Pod red. Iu.F. Poliakova. Moscow: IP AMN SSSR, 1982. 205 p.
9. Sokolova E.T. Motivatsiia i vospriiatie v norme i patologii [Motivation and perception in health and disease]. Moscow: Publishing House Moscow. University Press, 1976. 127 p.
10. Kholodnaia M.A. Kognitivnye stili: O prirode individual'nogo uma [Cognitive styles: On the nature of the individual mind]. Moscow: PERSE, 2002. 304 p.
11. Guilford J.P. The Nature of Human Intelligence. N. Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1967. 538 p.
12. Riding R.J., Cheema I. Cognitive style – an overview and integration // Journal of Education Psychology. 1991. Vol.11. P. 309–321.
13. Witkin H.A., Oltman Ph. K., Raskin E., Karp S.A. A Manual for the Embaded Figure Tests, Consulting Psychol. Palo Alto, CA: Press, Inc., 1971. P. 3–14.