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Social functioning impairments are a core, debilitating, and treatment refractory feature of schizophrenia. The mechanisms contributing to these impairments are unknown. Cognitive control mechanisms, mediated by the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), are known to influence response to interpersonal stressors in healthy individuals, thus impairments in these processes may contribute to social deficits. Deficits in cognitive control and lateral prefrontal abnormalities are well-documented in schizophrenia, but the relationship between these deficits and social interactions has received limited attention in the literature. The current dissertation presents a systematic examination of the contribution of the behavioral and neural mechanisms of cognitive control to social functioning impairments in schizophrenia. Three papers are presented. / Psychology

This study examined the emotion recognition of children (ages 7-9 years) with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Children completed two emotion recognition measures, the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy 2 (DANVA2) and the Child and Adolescent Social Perception measure (CASP). Children and their parents also completed an assessment of children’s social skills, the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS). Children with ADHD reported a significantly greater level of depressive symptoms and had significantly lower full scale IQ scores than children without ADHD. When these differences were accounted for, children with ADHD continued to show a handful of deficits in emotion recognition. They demonstrated difficulties in emotion recognition on the DANVA2 regarding specific emotions, fear and sadness. On the CASP, children with ADHD made significantly more errors than children without ADHD due to a tendency to make up information to explain how they were able to identify feelings. Children’s performance on the emotion recognition measures did not significantly mediate the relation between their diagnostic status and social skills (as rated by parents). In summary, additional evidence was found regarding the deficits in emotion recognition experienced by children with ADHD, however, further work needs to be done to determine if these deficits relate to the peer difficulties experienced by these children.

The thesis aim was to increase understanding of interpersonal antecedents and consequences of rumination, defined as ‘repetitive and passive thinking about one’s symptoms of depression and the possible causes and consequences of those symptoms’ (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2004, p.107). As a proof-of-principle study, rumination predicted diminished relationship satisfaction, three months later, in a sample of remitted depressed adults (N = 57). In the next study, rumination was associated with a maladaptive submissive interpersonal style and rejection sensitivity, controlling for depressive symptoms, other interpersonal styles and gender, in a different sample (N = 103 currently depressed, previously depressed and never depressed adults). Subsequent chapters incorporated a second assessment point of data from this same sample. Longitudinal analyses were undertaken to investigate; a) do rumination and depressogenic interpersonal factors predict future depression?; b) does rumination prospectively predict increased rejection sensitivity and submissive interpersonal behaviours, and, vice-versa, do these interpersonal factors predict increased rumination?; c) does rumination prospectively predict poor social adjustment and interpersonal stress? Consistent with previous findings, Time 1 rumination predicted increased depression six months later. Unexpectedly, the effect of rumination on future depression was mediated by its relationship with the submissive interpersonal style. Partially consistent with the stated predictions, Time 1 rejection sensitivity (but not the submissive interpersonal style) prospectively predicted increased rumination, but rumination did not predict rejection sensitivity or the submissive interpersonal style. As predicted, rumination prospectively predicted increased chronic interpersonal stress and poor social adjustment (but not acute interpersonal stress). In a final study, rumination was manipulated via an applied intervention (concreteness training, CT), within the context of a randomized controlled trial (N = 79 clinically depressed adults). Analyses compared the change in social adjustment and submissive interpersonal behaviour reported in the CT condition compared to a treatment as usual (TAU) condition. There was a significantly greater reduction in rumination in the CT compared to TAU condition, p < .05. Moreover, the reduction in submissive interpersonal behaviours was significantly greater in the CT compared to TAU condition, p < .05. The change in social adjustment was not greater in the CT compared to TAU condition. Thus, a psychological intervention which reduces rumination decreased maladaptive submissive interpersonal behaviour. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to theory of rumination and interpersonal theories of depression.

The eyes are a valuable source of information for a range of social processes. The stare-in-the-crowd effect describes the ability to detect self-directed gaze. Impairment in gaze detection mechanisms, such as the stare-in-the-crowd effect, has implications for social interactions and development of social relationships. Given the frequency with which humans utilize gaze detection in interactions, there is a need to better characterize the stare-in-the-crowd effect. This study utilized a previously validated dynamic visual paradigm to capture the stare-in-the-crowd effect. We compared typically-developing (TD) young adults and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on multiple measures of psychophysiology, including eye tracking and heart rate monitoring. Four conditions of visual stimuli were presented: averted gaze, mutual gaze, catching another staring, and getting caught staring. Eye tracking outcomes and arousal (pupil size and heart rate variability) were compared by diagnosis (TD or ASD) and condition (averted, mutual, catching another staring, getting caught staring) using repeated measure ANOVA. Significant interaction of diagnosis and condition was found for IA dwell time, IA fixation count, and IA second fixation duration. Hierarchical regression was used to assess how dimensional behavioral measures predicted eye tracking outcomes and arousal; only two models with advanced theory of mind as a predictor were significant. Overall, we demonstrated that individuals with ASD do respond differently to various gaze conditions in similar patterns to TD individuals, but to a lesser extent. This offers potential targets to social interventions to capitalize on this present but underdeveloped response to gaze. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This diploma thesis deals with selected problems that result from a person's obsessive compulsive disorder and that can influence and impact their social functioning. It also looks at selected possibilities for social work that can help to address these problems and to restore social functioning. The first chapter of this diploma thesis is focused on obsessive compulsive disorder. This chapter contains basic information about this mental disorder and the problems caused by this disease. The second chapter deals with the treatment of this disease. The third chapter focuses on the social functioning of a person suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. This chapter contains selected examples of problems caused by this disease and their impact on the social functioning of a person suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. These are examples from the scientific literature supplemented with examples from the particular case of Peter N.. The fourth chapter deals with selected possibilities of social work that can help to solve these problems and to restore social functioning.

Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children under 15 years of age. Despite a growing survival rate for childhood cancer, psychological research of this population has lagged behind medical advances in treatment. The research that does exist in the psycho-oncology literature is plagued with inconsistency in conclusions and methodological limitations. Focus has been given to measuring maladaptive symptoms with few firm conclusions. Conclusions in the area of social competence of children with cancer have been considerably more reliable than in other domains. Previous research suggests that children with cancer exhibit significant difficulties in the areas of social competence (peer relationships, social functioning) when compared with healthy peers. Although this phenomenon has been consistently demonstrated, it had not been investigated longitudinally or with a focus on pre- and postdiagnosis differences in functioning. This project investigated individual change in social competence in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (the most common form of childhood cancer) during their first 3 months of treatment compared to normally developing controls.

The literature indicates that, in comparison to children of other ethnic minority groups, Native American children may be at greater risk for a variety of emotional and behavioral Ill disorders and negative psychosocial conditions. Many may also struggle to resolve issues related to cultural identity. Understanding how Native American children and families relate to the cultures within which they live is a critical aspect of preventing and treating childhood mental disorders. Although Native children and families face persistent social pressure to adapt to a multicultural world, no systematic research exists examining the relationship between families' experience of acculturation and their children's social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. This study described features of acculturation among Native American children and families, and explored the relationship between these cultural features and children's functioning. The study relied primarily upon the perceptions of 186 children and parents from an American Indian tribe of the southwestern United States, each reporting on their own traditionalism, and their perceptions of the child's social-emotional competencies and problems. Child and parent perceptions were augmented by parent report of other family characteristics. Consistent with the literature, factor analytic and psychometric findings indicated that traditionalism is a multidimensional construct that can be measured reliably among children and adults. These findings are especially significant because few psychometrically adequate instruments exist to assess traditionalism or acculturation among Native American children. Few relationships were found between child emotional and behavioral problems and acculturation. A consistent pattern of relationships indicated an association of parent- and child-reported traditionalism with lower perceived levels of child social and behavioral competencies. Exceptions to this pattern included the tendency of children to see themselves as more socially competent if they were involved with traditional ceremonies. Parent reports indicated an association between biculturalism and positive perceptions of child competencies. These findings must be cautiously interpreted in conjunction with the specific cultural and historical context of these families. Characteristics of the data placed some limits on multivariate analyses, and most study findings should be viewed as exploratory. Recommendations are included for further research required to adequately understand relationships between family acculturation and child functioning.

The current research, across three studies, examined two social practices that involve processing and responding to others’ emotions, theory of mind (ToM) and empathy, and how they relate to dysphoria and the social impairments associated with dysphoria over time. Mildly depressed, or dysphoric, individuals, have been found to have heightened ToM when identifying others’ emotions, despite reporting widespread social impairments (Harkness et al., 2005). The first study (Chapter 2) examined if and how ToM is a mediator in the relationship between dysphoria and social functioning. Attribution style, specifically the internalizing attribution bias, was hypothesized to play a role. The interaction between ToM and internalizing attribution bias was independently associated with social functioning. For internalizing attributors, higher ToM was related to better social functioning, but no relationship was observed between ToM and social functioning among non-internalizing attributors. The second study (Chapter 3) examined the relationship between ToM and empathy, addressing the debate surrounding cognitive and affective aspects of ToM and empathy. Affective ToM and cognitive empathy both have been described as processes involving cognitive inferences about others’ emotions. Current results supported this link, showing that a specific component of empathy, perspective-taking, was related to ToM. Although ToM was associated with some aspects of empathy, empathy remained a separate construct that includes both cognitive and emotional responding to others’ emotions. Chapter 4 shifted focus to empathy to examine how this social practice relates to dysphoria and social functioning. The last study first examined how empathy relates to dysphoria. Results showed that only personal distress, one component of empathy, was associated with greater dysphoria. The final study also examined if the empathy x emotion regulation interaction mediates the relationship between dysphoria and social functioning. Different patterns were observed for different emotion regulation types. The interaction between maladaptive, but not adaptive, emotion regulation strategies and empathy was correlated directly with social functioning. For individuals with negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies, greater empathy was associated with better social functioning, a relationship not present for individuals who do not use negative cognitive emotion regulation. Finally maladaptive, but not adaptive, emotion regulation significantly predicted social functioning after controlling for dysphoria. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2008-10-22 15:25:33.573