Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the social-cognition enhancing rehabilitation program developed by Kwon(2000). The main components of the program were helping schizophrenic patients perceive social situations accurately, understand the interpersonal implications of given social situations, and express nonverbal and verbal behaviors which are socially appropriate. Four clinical trials were performed to evaluate the impact of social-cognition enhancing rehabilitation program on schizophrenic patients' social perception and social skills. For the first, second, third and fourth administration, participants were five, eight, six, and six chronic schizophrenic patients, respectively, who were attending community-based rehabilitation center. They attended ten weekly 60-min-sessions of social-cognition enhancing rehabilitation program. Control group of 20 patients who were institutionalized chronic schizophrenia was compared to the third and fourth treatment group. Both group were administered and rated on the picture arragemenet subtest of KEDI-WISC, Social skills inventory, Interpersonal functioning Inventory, and Social perception test before and after the program. Results of covariance analysis indicated that the social-cognition enhancing rehabilitation program was effective in increasing social skills, but not in enhancing social cognition. The implications of the results were discussed.