Validation of the disorganized thoughts scale: exploring its relationship with personality traits and metacognitive beliefs

Abstract

Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a key diagnostic criterion of schizophrenia, marked by unstructured, illogical, and incoherent thinking. Although FTD has been observed in both clinical and non-clinical populations, no widely accepted self-report measure currently exists for assessing disorganized thinking in the general population. This study aimed to examine and validate the new Disorganized Thoughts Scale (DTS), a 20-item self-report measure developed to address this gap. To achieve this, a sample of 142 psychology students from the University of Regina completed a Qualtrics survey consisting of the DTS, demographic questions, Big Five Inventory (BFI-44), and Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30). It was hypothesized that the DTS would show a two-factor structure via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and that the DTS scores would be positively correlated with neuroticism and maladaptive metacognitive beliefs. CFA was used to test whether the DTS followed a two-factor model (Positive and Negative Thought Disorder), and correlational analyses were conducted to examine potential relationships between DTS scores with personality traits (BFI-44), metacognitive beliefs (MCQ-30), and demographic variables. The model showed modest fit, with SRMR being within acceptable limits, but CFI, TLI, and RMSEA were under ideal cutoffs. The DTS scores were positively correlated with neuroticism and maladaptive metacognitive beliefs, consistent with the hypotheses. Overall, these findings supported the DTS’s internal structure and convergent validity. However, future studies could benefit with further testing using larger and more diverse samples.