Journal of abnormal psychology
-
Emotional and motivational dysfunction is fundamental to schizophrenia, and yet, the nature and scope of associated deficits are not well understood. This study assessed the integrity of emotional responding from the perspective of its underlying motivational systems during different phases of schizophrenia. Evaluative, somatic, and autonomic responses were measured during viewing of pictures categorized by emotional content, including threat, mutilation, contamination, illness, pollution, mild erotica, families, food, and nature. ⋯ Irrespective of phase of illness, schizophrenia patients showed a robust and normal pattern of response across multiple systems, with differential engagement of the defensive and appetitive systems as a function of the motivational significance assigned to specific emotional contexts. Although the integrity of core motivational states also appeared to be intact in prodromal patients, a less consistent pattern of response was observed. As continuing efforts are made to identify emotional and motivational abnormalities in schizophrenia, identified deficits will likely be independent of a fundamental dysfunction in basic emotion and motivation response systems and involve integration with higher order processes.
-
A prospective longitudinal follow-up study (n = 59) of child and adolescent survivors of physical assaults and motor vehicle accidents assessed whether cognitive processes predicted posttraumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS) at 6 months posttrauma in this age group. In particular, the study assessed whether maladaptive posttraumatic appraisals mediated the relationship between initial and later posttraumatic stress. Self-report measures of PTSS, maladaptive appraisals, and other cognitive processes, as well as structured interviews assessing for acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were completed at 2-4 weeks and 6 months posttrauma. ⋯ Only maladaptive appraisals were found to associate with PTSS/PTSD after partialing out initial symptoms/diagnosis and to mediate between initial and later PTSS. It was argued that, on this basis, maladaptive appraisals are involved in the development and maintenance of PTSS over time, whereas other cognitive processes (e.g., subjective threat, memory processes) may have an effect only in the acute phase. The implications of this study for the treatment of PTSS in youths are discussed.
-
The response styles theory (S. Nolen-Hoeksema, B. E. ⋯ In the community sample, symptom-focused rumination predicted more depressive symptoms, whereas in former inpatients, distractive coping predicted fewer depressive symptoms over time. The authors conclude that interventions aimed at reducing rumination should preferably be applied in preventive and early intervention settings, although in individuals with a history of more severe and long-standing depression rumination might gradually lose its capacity to predict the further illness course. In these persons, interventions should particularly strengthen distractive coping.
-
Restraint theory has been used to model the process that produces binge eating. However, there is no satisfactory explanation for the tendency of restrained eaters (REs) to engage in counterregulatory eating, an ostensible analogue of binge eating. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors investigated brain activation of normal weight REs (N = 9) and unrestrained eaters (UREs; N = 10) when fasted and fed and viewing pictures of highly and moderately palatable foods and neutral objects. ⋯ When fed and viewing high palatability foods, UREs showed activation in areas related to satiation and memory, whereas REs showed activation in areas implicated in desire, expectation of reward, and goal-defined behavior. These findings parallel those from behavioral research. The authors propose that the counterintuitive findings from preload studies and the present study are due to the fact that REs are less hungry than UREs when fasted and find palatable food more appealing than UREs when fed.
-
Individuals can exert considerable control over their experience and expression of emotion by applying different regulatory strategies such as reappraisal and suppression. However, although it has been suggested that blunted affect in schizophrenia, characterized by markedly reduced emotion expressivity alongside apparently normal emotion experience, may reflect overuse of suppression, no study to date has assessed self-reported use of these different emotion regulatory strategies in relation to this disorder. In the present study, 41 individuals with schizophrenia and 38 control participants completed a self-report measure that differentiated between use of suppression and reappraisal. ⋯ Relative to controls, individuals with schizophrenia did not differ with regard to their reported use of suppression and reappraisal, and reported use of both strategies was unrelated to clinical ratings of blunted affect. However, whereas (lower) use of reappraisal was associated with greater social function impairment for both groups, only for controls was (greater) use of suppression associated with reduced social functioning. Implications for understanding blunted affect and social dysfunction in schizophrenia are discussed.