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The present study examined the associations of positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy with psychotic-like experiences, affect, and social functioning in daily life using experience sampling methodology (ESM) in 2 samples (ns = 165 and 203) that employed different measures of schizotypy. Schizotypy is a useful framework for understanding schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology, and ESM offers a powerful approach for assessing schizotypy in real-world settings. Participants were signaled 8 times daily for 7 days to complete ESM questionnaires. As hypothesized, positive schizotypy was robustly associated with psychotic-like experiences in daily life, whereas negative schizotypy was associated with negative experiences, diminished positive affect, and social disinterest in both samples. As expected, disorganized schizotypy was associated with disorganization in daily life. Furthermore, it was associated with increased negative affect and diminished positive affect. Thus, positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy were associated with unique, hypothesized patterns of experiences in daily life, and the findings across the two samples and two schizotypy measures were strikingly consistent. Note that when disorganized schizotypy was not entered as a predictor in the 2 samples, disorganized experiences and negative affect in daily life were associated with positive schizotypy. However, when disorganized schizotypy was included as a predictor, these daily life experiences were associated with disorganized, not positive, schizotypy. This is similar to findings from interview and questionnaire studies that have simultaneously assessed positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy. The findings support the construct validity of the multidimensional model of schizotypy and the importance of including disorganization in the conceptualization and assessment of schizotypy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Individuals at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders tend to make atypical attributions of significance to unimportant stimuli. This experience of heightened significance, known as aberrant salience, is thought to contribute to psychotic symptoms. The Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) was designed to capture subclinical and clinical manifestations of the construct, and scores on the scale are associated with schizophrenia-like symptoms and behaviors in laboratory studies. Experience sampling methodology (ESM) studies have assessed momentary experiences of aberrant salience in daily life, but to our knowledge no study has examined real-world outcomes using the ASI as a trait measure of aberrant salience. The current study assessed the expression of aberrant salience in undergraduates oversampled for positive and negative schizotypy using ESM. Overall, findings of the expression of aberrant salience in daily life were similar to previous findings with positive schizotypy. Aberrant salience was associated with psychotic-like and disorganized symptoms, suspiciousness, and social impairment in daily life. It was unassociated with negative symptoms, stress, or affect in the moment. Aberrant salience did not moderate daily life associations of stress with schizotypic symptoms. The ASI subscales showed differential patterns of associations in daily life. These findings support the construct validity of the ASI and suggest that aberrant salience traits are relevant for real-world outcomes in schizotypy-spectrum psychopathology.