Philosophical and psychological theories of social understanding have largely focused on the construct of “theory of mind” (ToM) and the inferential processes that may be necessary for understanding the meaning of others’ behaviour. On these traditional accounts, social understanding has often been described as a process of “mind reading” or “mentalizing”, where one imputes mental states to others to make sense of their behaviour. However, recent work from social neuroscience and enactivist and phenomenological perspectives have pointed to the importance of considering non-inferential forms of social understanding that may be a more basic or foundational way in which we understand others. This dissertation investigates the relationship between these different forms of social understanding by examining the role of perceptual, motor, and conceptual processes in how we understand others. One hundred and two older adolescents and adults completed a battery of psychophysical and paper & pencil tasks. Correlations showed coherence amongst measures that assessed participants’ perceptual sensitivity to social information, with minimal coherence across “theory of mind” tasks. Exploratory factor analysis conducted on 13 measures yielded a meaningful 4 factor solution that supported the distinction between conceptual or inferential measures and more direct, perceptual forms of social understanding. Overall, the findings from this study highlight the importance of considering the variety of ways in which we can understand others and provides empirical support for a more pluralistic and comprehensive account of social understanding. / Graduate / 2020-10-23

Cognitive impairment is a key characteristic of schizophrenia and is a clear predictor of functional outcome. This thesis explores the relationship between cognitive ability relating to social and non-social processing. Schizophrenia patients demonstrate an impaired ability to recognise, label and discriminate emotional expression within the face. The underlying mechanisms behind this social cognitive impairment are not yet fully understood. This thesis explores the notion that a basic perceptual impairment in processing facial information adversely impacts on the perception of more complex information derived from faces, such as emotional expression. Face perception relies on processing the featural characteristics of a face as well as the relationship between these features. Information pertaining to the spatial distances between features is referred to as configural information. / A group of schizophrenia patients and healthy control participants completed a battery of tasks that assessed basic neurocognition, facial emotion processing and configural face processing. A model of face processing was proposed and used to systematically pinpoint specific deficits that may contribute to impaired face processing in schizophrenia. The results indicated that schizophrenia patients show impairments on three broad constructs; basic neurocognition, facial emotion processing, and most pertinently, deficits in configural processing. It was revealed that although neurocognitive and face processing both explained a significant proportion of the variance in facial emotion processing, the effect of neurocognition was indirect and mediated by face processing. / To investigate the diagnostic specificity of these findings, a group of bipolar disorder patients was also tested on the task battery. The results indicated that bipolar disorder patients also show social and non-social cognitive impairments, however, not as severe as that demonstrated by the schizophrenia patients. Furthermore, the effect of neurocognitive performance on facial emotion processing appeared more direct for bipolar disorder patients compared to schizophrenia patients. Although deficits in face processing were observable in bipolar, they were not specific to configural processing. Thus, deficits in emotion processing were more associated to neurocognitive ability in bipolar disorder patients, and more associated to configural face processing in schizophrenia patients. The configural processing deficits in schizophrenia are discussed as a lower-order perception problem. In conclusion, the results of this thesis are discussed in terms of their implication for treatment.

Patients with schizophrenia have extremely high levels of depression and suicide (Carlborg et al., 2008), thus, a better understanding of factors associated with poor quality of life (QoL) for this population is sorely needed. A growing body of research suggests that cognitive functioning in schizophrenia may be a strong predictor of overall QoL (Green et al., 2000), but individual domains of QoL have not been examined. Indirect evidence also suggests that emotion perception may underlie the relationship between neurocognition and QoL, but this hypothesis has also yet to be tested. Using a sample of 92 clinically stable schizophrenia patients, the current study explores the relationship between neurocognition, namely attention and working memory, and the following sub domains of QoL: social, vocational, intrapsychic foundations and environmental engagement. The current study also examines whether emotion perception mediates this relationship. In partial support of hypotheses, patients with more deficits in working memory reported decreased Occupational QoL and, although only marginally significant, decreased Total QoL. There was also a trend for poorer working memory to be associated with poorer Intrapsychic Foundations QoL. Contrary to hypotheses, emotion perception was not found to mediate the relationship between working memory and QoL. Current findings suggest that interventions that specifically target working memory may also improve many other aspects of schizophrenia patients? QoL.

The aim of this essay is to investigate how paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenic patients differ in the processing of emotional facial expressions from healthy individuals, and how this could lead to deficits in the area of social cognition. Researchers have conducted many behavioral and neuroimaging studies on facial emotion processing and emotion recognition in schizophrenia. Several studies have shown that individuals with schizophrenia have deficits in recognizing and processing emotional facial stimuli. It is known that patients with different subtypes of schizophrenia also show differences in facial emotion processing. It has also been shown that patients with schizophrenia uses different strategies in the processing of emotional faces compared to healthy individuals.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by social dysfunction. People with schizophrenia misinterpret social information and it is suggested that this difficulty may result from visual processing deficits. As faces are one of the most important sources of social information it is hypothesized that people suffering from the disorder have impairments in the visual face processing system. It is unclear which mechanism of the face processing system is impaired but two types of deficits are most often proposed: a deficit in face perception in general (i.e., processing of facial features as such) and a deficit in facial emotion processing (i.e., recognition of emotional facial expressions). Due to the contradictory evidence from behavioural, electrophysiological as well as neuroimaging studies offering support for the involvement of one or the other deficit in schizophrenia it is early to make any conclusive statements as to the nature and level of impairment. Further studies are needed for a better understanding of the key mechanism and abnormalities underlying social dysfunction in schizophrenia.

In this thesis I have investigated the process of self-schematic transformation that has been argued that offenders undergo in order to desist from crime. In this thesis I have used narrative interviews with twelve desisting offenders consisting of five non-violent offenders and seven violent offenders. I have analysed these narratives using a social cognitive perspective in order to seek an understanding of the self-schemas of the offenders. The results show that the desistance is the result of a longer process and the turning point experienced by the participants were the high point of this process. Social influences were highly important for both groups. Both groups were low in agency, with the exception to their new selves and the desisting process; still, the violent offenders were somewhat higher than the non-violent offenders. In general both groups used outside sources to explain their past crimes and substance abuse, though the violent offenders did this in less extent. Further, the analysis showed that the self-schema of the desisting offenders could be divided into three parts; the former self, the true self, and the new self, or who they used to be, who they have always been, and who they are now. The degree to which the offenders expressed these different selves varied between the two groups.

<p>Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by social dysfunction. People with schizophrenia misinterpret social information and it is suggested that this difficulty may result from visual processing deficits. As faces are one of the most important sources of social information it is hypothesized that people suffering from the disorder have impairments in the visual face processing system. It is unclear which mechanism of the face processing system is impaired but two types of deficits are most often proposed: a deficit in face perception in general (i.e., processing of facial features as such) and a deficit in facial emotion processing (i.e., recognition of emotional facial expressions). Due to the contradictory evidence from behavioural, electrophysiological as well as neuroimaging studies offering support for the involvement of one or the other deficit in schizophrenia it is early to make any conclusive statements as to the nature and level of impairment. Further studies are needed for a better understanding of the key mechanism and abnormalities underlying social dysfunction in schizophrenia.</p>

<p>The aim of this essay is to investigate how paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenic patients differ in the processing of emotional facial expressions from healthy individuals, and how this could lead to deficits in the area of social cognition. Researchers have conducted many behavioral and neuroimaging studies on facial emotion processing and emotion recognition in schizophrenia. Several studies have shown that individuals with schizophrenia have deficits in recognizing and processing emotional facial stimuli. It is known that patients with different subtypes of schizophrenia also show differences in facial emotion processing. It has also been shown that patients with schizophrenia uses different strategies in the processing of emotional faces compared to healthy individuals.</p>

ADHD is a well researched disorder in children and is associated with impairments in social functioning (Barkley, 2006). However, little is known about the etiology of social difficulties. An emerging body of literature is beginning to address the possible role social cognition may share in the social functioning outcomes in children with ADHD (Buitelaar et al., 1999; Corbett & Glidden, 2000; DaFonseca et al., 2009; Rapport et al., 2002; Sibley et al., 2010; Yuill & Lyon, 2007). Yet, research focusing on social cognition deficits in ADHD that accounts for subtype differences is limited. Some studies evaluated social cognition in CT children only (Corbett & Glidden, 2000; DaFonseca et al., 2009; Rapport et al., 2002) while other research utilized behavior ratings or sociometric studies (Matthys et al., 1999; Zentall et al., 2001). Another body of literature has examined the impact executive functioning deficits may have on social functioning (Barkley, 1997; Charman et al., 2001; Chhabildas et al., 2001). The purpose of the current study was to identify factors that predict social functioning impairments in children with ADHD as well as differentiate between ADHD subtypes. Participants included 89 youth with ages ranging from 6 to 16 years (M = 10.19, SD = 2.76). Forty-nine children met the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Subtype (PI) and 40 for ADHD, Combined Type (CT). Results indicated CT youth demonstrated more aggressive and rule-breaking behavior than PI youth. Measures of social cognition did not predict ADHD subtype, and when compared to a normative sample, participants performed in the average range on affect recognition and theory of mind tasks. Performance-based measures of executive functioning largely associated with inattention (i.e., vigilance, processing speed, and working memory) best predicted subtype differences with CT youth being more impaired. Executive functioning, not social cognition, was predictive of social maladjustment in CT and PI youth. For CT youth, deficits in emotion control, shift, and initiate were related to anxiety, aggressive behavior, and depressed mood. Similarly, emotion control and shift were predictors of aggressive behavior, anxiety, and depressed mood in PI youth with deficits in self-monitoring, initiate, and inhibit as secondary predictors. / text

The present mixed-methods study examined adolescents’ social perspective taking in contexts of social justice as demonstrated by their awareness and interpretations of hypothetical peer interactions depicting racism and sexism. Fifty adolescents in Grades 9 and 12 participated in a semi-structured interview in which they were presented with two scenarios, involving adolescents in conflicts portraying racism and sexism. They were asked a series of questions designed to elicit their awareness and understanding of social group differences. Qualitative analyses revealed three categories of adolescents’ responses, reflecting distinct interpretations of social group differences. On average, adolescents assumed a perspective that was naïve to the disparities existing between vulnerable and less vulnerable social groups. Furthermore, it was shown that older adolescents had significantly more sophisticated social justice understandings than younger adolescents. These findings highlight the need to educate adolescents about issues of social justice and facilitate an appreciation of social group differences.