Abstract

Individuals with schizophrenia have impaired social cognitive abilities that include emotion recognition, Theory of Mind and affective empathy deficits compared to healthy controls (Bekhtereva, Craddock, & Müller, 2015; Bora, Gökçen, & Veznedaroglu, 2008; Bora, Yucel, & Pantelis, 2009; Martin J Herrmann, Ellgring, & Fallgatter, 2004). Subjective emotional experience measured by valance (pleasantness) and arousal have been found to have significant effects on perceptual processes related to emotion recognition (Champion, 2016; Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm, 1993; Lundqvist, Juth, & Öhman, 2014). It is not clear to what extent valance and arousal impact emotion recognition, Theory of Mind, and empathy in healthy controls and individuals with schizophrenia. This dissertation included 2 parts. In Study 1, 107 participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk completed an online survey that included the Hinting Task, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, an emotion recognition task using the NimStim Face Stimulus Set, and the Self-Assessment Manikin for rating valance and arousal of the NimStim stimuli. Valance and Arousal Ratings were significantly different than ratings published by Sutton, Hermber, and Clark (2019). Emotion recognition performance was predicted by Valance (and not Arousal), such that participant were better at recognizing emotions rated at the extremes of valance. Furthermore, Hinting Task scores predicted emotion recognition performance, but empathy did not. In Study 2, 26 inpatients with schizophrenia completed the same online survey from Study 1. Participant responses were compared with High and Low Schizotypy groups which were comprised of participants from Study 1 who scored in the top 20% and bottom 20% of scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. Participants with schizophrenia performed worse than the High and Low Schizotypy groups overall and rated images as more pleasant. Overall, results indicate that subjective experience impacts domains of social cognition differently for individuals with schizophrenia and individuals with high and low schizotypy traits.

LLU Discipline

Clinical Psychology

Department

Clinical Psychology

School

School of Behavioral Health

First Advisor

Colleen A. Brenner

Second Advisor

Richard E. Hartman

Third Advisor

Grace J. Lee

Fourth Advisor

Kelsey Bonfils

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Level

Ph.D.

Year Degree Awarded

2021

Date (Title Page)

12-2020

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Schizophrenia--Psychological aspects; Social cognition; Emotion recognition; Affective valence (Psychology); Arousal (Psychology)

Type

Dissertation

Page Count

xiv, 142 p.

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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