An investigation of a problem solving situation as a paradigm of the double bind

Abstract

The present thesis reports on the results of an experiment designed to measure certain aspects of the double bind hypothesis, which was developed by the Bateson group in 1956 to account for the aetiology of schizophrenia. Two ingredients of the total double bind situation were studied, firstly, conflict between levels of communication and the importance of a command keeping the victim of the double bind in the field. These two conditions were seen as important distinguishing points between double bind frustration and the ordinary type of frustration. The experimenter tested 80 normal subjects in a problem solving situation similar to one used by Maier (1949) in his experiments with rats. In the experiment, subjects were given a number of problems to solve and some were frustrated in the middle of the experiment. The general hypothesis was that double bind subjects would show greater performance deterioration after frustration than subjects who experienced the ordinary frustration situation (i.e. contradiction subjects). Performance deterioration was measured in terms of response latencies, number of correct answer, and the number of “fixated”- responses. The result offered limited support for the hypothesis. In general, double bind subjects and contradiction subjects performed equally badly on the problem, but both did worse than the continually rewarded control group. Only in two measures did the double bind subjects differ significantly from the frustrated subjects. These differences were that the former made more “fixated” responses than contradiction subjects (fixations were used as a measure of the abnormality of a subject’s response.) and also they pressed an escape button more often than frustrated subjects. Data obtained from questionnaires indicated that double bind subjects became more puzzled and angry during the experiment than frustrated subjects, but these results were of a qualitative nature and no statistical analysis was carried out. An unexpected significant result demonstrated the importance of the feedback of information in the problem solving situation, suggesting some modification to the present experiment. As most of the results were insignificant, the experimenter rejected the hypotheses concerning differences between double bind and frustration subjects in the efficiency of problem solving. Results did indicate a trend in predicted direction and the experimenter concluded that with some refinements to the present experiment, important differences between double bind and frustration subjects could exist, thus disagreeing with an earlier conclusion reached by Ringuette and Kennedy (1966) about the testability of the double bind hypothesis. Show more