Dr. Gordon Sidney Claridge was a British

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

and author, best known for his theoretical and empirical work on the concept of

schizotypy In psychology, schizotypy is a theoretical concept that posits a continuum (theory), continuum of personality psychology, personality characteristics and experiences, ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to extreme states of mind ...

Gordon Claridge
/ref> or psychosis-proneness.

Biography

Claridge took his first degree in Psychology at

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, in 1953. His PhD work was at the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a centre for mental health and neuroscience research, education and training in Europe. It is dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness, neurological co ...

, London, jointly supervised by

Hans Eysenck Hans Jürgen Eysenck ( ; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a German-born British psychologist. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality psychology, personality, although he worked on other issues in psychology. At t ...

and Neil O’Connor. He qualified under in-service training as a clinical psychologist, and from 1957-61 worked as Eysenck’s Research Assistant, based in the Royal Victoria Military Hospital, Netley, Southampton. Claridge then moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

as Head of

Clinical Psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...

at Barrow Hospital and part-time lecturer in the

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

Department of Psychology. From 1964-74 he ran the

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

clinical psychology training course as (eventually) Reader in Clinical Psychology. He was awarded a DSc from Glasgow University in 1971. In 1974 Claridge moved to Oxford as University Lecturer in

Abnormal Psychology Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies unusual patterns of behavior, emotion, and thought, which could possibly be understood as a mental disorder. Although many behaviors could be considered as abnormal, this branch of ps ...

at the Department of

Experimental Psychology Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

and Fellow of

Magdalen College Magdalen College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, se ...

. For the first five years of this appointment he ran the

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

clinical psychology training course. He was

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at Oxford University and Emeritus Fellow of

. He was also visiting professor in the Department of Psychology,

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (OBU; formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. Th ...

. He was a Fellow of the

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the org ...

, Associate of the

Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental healt ...

, and a past president of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences. Claridge died in Oxford on 3 May 2021, aged 89.

Research

Claridge was best known for his work in developing the theoretical construct of

. Schizotypy as a concept overlaps, partially but not completely, with Eysenck’s concept of

psychoticism Psychoticism is one of the three traits used by the psychologist Hans Eysenck in his outdated P–E–N model ( psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism) model of personality. Psychoticism includes the traits of "aggression, coldness, egocentris ...

. Research suggests that in some people milder forms of schizotypy may be adaptive and linked to creativity.

Bibliography

*''Personality and Arousal'', 1967 *''Drugs and Human Behaviour'', 1970 (with S. Canter & W.E. Hume) *''Personality Differences and Biological Variations'', 1973 *''Origins of Mental Illness'', 1985 *''Sounds from the Bell Jar: Ten Psychotic Authors'', 1990 (with R. Pryor & G. Watkins) *''Schizotypy: Implications for Illness and Health'', 1997 (edited) *''Personality and Psychological Disorders'', 2003 (with C. Davis) *''Psychopathology and personality dimensions: The Selected works of Gordon Claridge'', 2018

Selected papers

* Cyhlarova E, Claridge G. (2005). Development of a version of the Schizotypy Traits Questionnaire (STA) for screening children. ''Schizophrenia Research'', 80, 253-261. * Rawlings, D., Barrentes-Vidal, N., Claridge, G., McCreery, C., and Galanos, G. (2000). A factor analytic study of the Hypomanic Personality Scale in British, Spanish and Australian samples. ''Personality and Individual Differences'', 28, 73-84. * Claridge, G., Clark, K., Davis, C., & Mason, O. (1998). Schizophrenia risk and handedness: a mixed picture. ''Laterality'', 3, 209-220. * Claridge, G., Clark, K., & Davis, C. (1997). Nightmares, dreams and schizotypy. ''British Journal of Clinical Psychology'', 36, 377-386. * Claridge, G., McCreery, C., Mason, O., Bentall, R., Boyle, G., Slade, P., & Popplewell, D. (1996). The factor structure of 'schizotypal' traits: A large replication study. ''British Journal of Clinical Psychology'', 35, 103-115.

References

External links

A partial list of Claridge’s scientific papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claridge, Gordon British psychologists Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Alumni of University College London Schizophrenia researchers Academics of Oxford Brookes University Academics of the University of Bristol Academics of the University of Glasgow