A Study of Attitudes of Key Relatives of Schizopherenic Patients*

An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to certain situations, per-sonsorobjects in aconsistent mannerwhich has been learned and has become one's typical mode of response (Freeman, 1971). The strength of a person's attitude may vary. There are many studies which have measured the attitude of parents of schizophrenics by using questionnaires There are several clinically oriented studies which reveal that the attitude and behaviour of parents may influence the development of schizo-phrenia (Brown et al. carried out a planned study of the effect of schizo-phrenic's emotional relationship with his family en the course of his illness. It was observed that the degree of deterio r ation was significantly 'elated to the amount of expressed emotion and hostility in the household. Brown and Rutter (196t>) recorded the expression of both negative and positive feelings and used two types of scales. One was a simple account of the number pf negative and positive statements and the second was an overall judgement based on total interview. The variables which were taken into account were critical comments about someone else in the home, dissatisfaction, hostility, warmth and emotional over-involvement. Brown et al. (1972) proved hypothesis that a high degree of expressed emotions (i.e. variables mentioned above) is an index of characteristics in the relatives which are likely to cause a florid relapse of symptoms independently of other factors such as length of history, type of symptoms or severity of previous behavioural disturbances. The studies which have been reviewed above mainly deal with attitudes of relatives towards the genesis of schizoph-renia. But the studies of Brown et al. are the only clinically oriented studies in which the attitudes of key relatives affecting course and outcome of schizophrenia have been studied. For this reason we have selected variables from the studies of Brown et al.