Developing empirically sound measures for social cognition is a key step in improving the factors that contribute to deficits in social functioning in schizophrenia. Investigating the psychometric properties and acceptability of social cognitive instruments may contribute to identification of a reliable and valid instrument for schizophrenia patients.

To investigate the psychometric properties and acceptability of a dynamic social cognition scale (DSCB) compared to three common social cognition instruments in schizophrenia.

41 patients with schizophrenia were evaluated to assess acceptability, internal consistency and validity of five social cognition measures: DSCB, Emotion Recognition-40 (ER-40), Facial Emotion Identification Task (FEIT), Tone Matching Task and MSCEIT. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to identify variables which perform well as social cognition determinants.

The DSCB and FEIT showed good acceptability, evidenced by shorter administration time, completion and patient preference for the DSCB. Good levels of internal consistency were found for the DSCB (α = 0.851), ER-40 (α = 0.803), and FEIT (α = 0.782). Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated sufficient to good model fit. The DSCB and the ER-40 demonstrated a good model fit. The correlations for the DSCB were significant for the ER-40 (r = 0.512) and FEIT (r = 0.500).

Findings suggest that DSCB is the preferred instrument to evaluate social cognition, due to its dynamic nature and short administration time. Further research is needed to develop and improve these measurements. Additionally, the DSCB, FEIT and ER-40 show adequate to good reliability and validity.