Quality of hallucinatory experiences: differences between a clinical and a non-clinical sample.
Giovanni Stanghellini, Álvaro I Langer, Alessandra Ambrosini, Adolfo J. Cangas
World Psychiatry June 1, 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.wpsyc.2012.05.007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Patients with schizophrenia (clinical sample) and university students (non-clinical sample) |
| Measures | Revised Hallucination Scale (RHS) |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Schizophrenia Qualitative analysis Hallucinations Continuum model Psychotic–like experiences |
| Key findings | The descriptions of hallucinatory or hallucinatory-like experiences given by patients with schizophrenia and by university students differed substantially in kind. The authors argue that yes-or-no answers to questionnaires such as the Revised Hallucination Scale cannot reliably or validly assess such experiences without a precise characterization of their phenomenal quality. |
Abstract
In this study, we asked people from two samples (a clinical one, consisting of patients with schizophrenia, and a non-clinical one, including university students) to complete the Revised Hallucination Scale (RHS) as a self-questionnaire. When the participants responded positively to an item, they were encouraged to provide further detailed descriptions (i.e., examples of their own experiences) concerning that item. We found that the kinds of descriptions provided by the two groups were very different. We suggest that it is not advisable to explore the presence of hallucinations in non-clinical samples using research protocols based exclusively on yes-or-no answers to questionnaires like the RHS. Hallucinatory or hallucinatory-like experiences cannot be reliably and validly assessed without a precise characterization of the phenomenal quality of the experience.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences Cardiac arrest survivors | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 34 |
| Phenomenology and Sequelae of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Use Psychiatrists who had taken MDMA | 1992 | Qualitative study | n = 20 |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports. Extreme sports participants across three continents, including BASE jumping, big wave... | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 15 |
| Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience. Naturalistic inhaled N,N-DMT experiences posted to the r/DMT Reddit community | 2022 | Qualitative analysis | n = 3,778 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- Double bookkeeping and schizophrenia spectrum: divided unified phenomenal consciousness. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience December 1, 2021
- The construct validity of the Inventory of Psychotic-Like Anomalous Self-Experiences (IPASE) as a measure of minimal self-disturbance: Preliminary data. Early Intervention in Psychiatry June 1, 2019
- Can Self-Disorders Be Self-Rated? Theoretical and Empirical Validity of the Inventory of Psychotic-Like Anomalous Self-Experiences. Psychopathology April 27, 2026
- Comparing the characteristics of hallucinations and mental imagery: a large cross-sectional study in the general population. Consciousness and Cognition 2026
- Measuring the contents of hallucinations from psychedelics and stroboscopic light: the Six-Dimensional Visual Hallucination Questionnaire Royal Society Open Science September 2, 2026
and 7 more in the library