Abstract
The concept of human relatedness was reexamined in the context of a standardized evaluation of 55 boys and 13 girls referred with a diagnosis of childhood psychosis. Human relatedness was hypothesized to be a multidimensional complex construct which could be analyzed in terms of simpler, more basic functions. All children were evaluated on a 14-point diagnostic scale. Analysis of diagnostic data generated three factors, one of which comprised a cluster of variables representing a measure of human relatedness and various perceptual functions. The hypothesis was supported by factor loadings. Also, a multiple regression analysis indicated that most of the variance in human relatedness could be accounted for by perceptual variables. It is suggested that impairment of human relatedness is largely due to impaired perceptual functions, and that much inappropriate maternal behavior is in response to such functions.
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Supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 15539. We gratefully acknowledge the statistical consultation of John Hawley, Psychometric Laboratory, University of North Carolina. Edwina Bentz and Laura Viernstein, Research Assistants in the Child Research Project, assisted in the collection and analysis of the data.
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Reichler, R.J., Schopler, E. Observations on the nature of human relatedness. J Autism Dev Disord 1, 283–296 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01557349
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01557349