Measuring social cognition within the university: The Social Cognition Psychometric Evaluation (SCOPE) battery in an undergraduate sample.

Many social cognitive assessments that were developed specifically for use in clinical populations are now being widely used in undergraduate populations, either to provide a comparison for clinical groups or to explore performance across the continuum from healthy to subclinical populations. However, the appropriateness of using these assessments in the general population is unclear. The current study, therefore, seeks to determine whether the Social Cognition Psychometric Evaluation (SCOPE) battery retains its psychometric properties when used in an undergraduate sample.The initial SCOPE battery was administered to 265 undergraduate participants, and the utility of the tasks was measured by assessing floor and ceiling effects. Internal consistency, discriminant and convergent validity are reported for each task, and the relationship between task performance and neurocognition and social functioning were assessed.Several of the tasks demonstrated limited utility, with the Hinting Task specifically demonstrating a pronounced ceiling effect. Only two measures of social cognitive biases achieved satisfactory internal consistency. Select tasks demonstrated small, but significant relationships with social functioning outcomes and significantly predicted 2-3% of variance above neurocognition alone.Despite the association with social functioning, results indicate that the psychometric properties demonstrated in the initial SCOPE study with a clinical sample do not fully extend to a healthy undergraduate population and highlight the need for social cognitive tasks that validly assess ability across the continuum.

Relationships between Sleep Quality, Introspective Accuracy, and Confidence Differ among People with Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features.

People with schizophrenia-spectrum and bipolar disorders have difficulty accurately estimating their abilities and skills (impaired introspective accuracy [IA]) and tend to over- or underestimate their performance. This discrepancy between self-reported and objective task performance has been identified as a significant predictor of functional impairment. Yet, the factors driving this discrepancy are currently unclear. To date, the relationships between sleep quality and IA have not been examined. The current study aimed to explore the relationships between sleep quality and IA in participants diagnosed with schizophrenia (SCZ; n = 36), schizoaffective disorder (SCZ-A; n = 55), and bipolar disorder with psychotic features (BP; n = 87). Participants completed tasks of emotion recognition, estimated their performance on the tasks (used to calculate IA), and provided confidence ratings for their accuracy judgments. Participants also self-reported their sleep quality. These results suggest significantly greater discrepancies between self-reported and actual task scores for those with SCZ and SCZ-A compared to participants with BP. For those with SCZ, lower confidence on the tasks and underestimation of abilities were associated with lower sleep quality, while for those with SCZ-A, lower sleep quality was associated with higher confidence and overestimation of performance. Results suggest differential relationships between diagnostic groups. Future research is needed to further explore the factors driving these differing relationships, particularly the contrasting relationships between SCZ and SCZ-A.

Identity recognition from faces and bodies in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Deficits in facial identity recognition and its association with poor social functioning are well documented in schizophrenia, but none of these studies have assessed the role of the body in these processes. Recent research in healthy populations shows that the body is also an important source of information in identity recognition, and the current study aimed to thoroughly examine identity recognition from both faces and bodies in schizophrenia. Sixty-five individuals with schizophrenia and forty-nine healthy controls completed three conditions of an identity matching task in which they attempted to match unidentified persons in unedited photos of faces and bodies, edited photos showing faces only, or edited photos showing bodies only. Results revealed global deficits in identity recognition in individuals with schizophrenia (ηp2 = 0.068), but both groups showed better recognition from bodies alone as compared to faces alone (ηp2 = 0.573), suggesting that the ability to extract useful information from bodies when identifying persons may remain partially preserved in schizophrenia. Further research is necessary to understand the relationship between face/body processing, identity recognition, and functional outcomes in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Schizotypy Moderates the Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Social Cognition.

ABSTRACT: Poor sleep quality has been tied to worse social cognition. Social cognitive deficits have been noted in those with high schizotypy. Yet, no study has assessed whether schizotypy moderates the relationship between sleep quality and social cognition, which may be vital to our understanding of contributors to social functioning. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of associations of sleep quality and social cognition, with potential moderation by schizotypy. Participants ( n = 906) completed self-report measures of schizotypy, sleep quality, and social cognition. Levels of schizotypy significantly moderated some of the relationships between sleep and social cognition. For participants low in total or interpersonal schizotypy, worse sleep quality was associated with worse theory of mind scores. For participants low in total, disorganized, or cognitive perceptual schizotypy, worse sleep quality was associated with worse self-reported cognitive empathy. For those high in these facets of schizotypy, worse sleep quality was associated with better self-reported cognitive empathy. These results suggest that the individual facets of schizotypy provide additional information and, therefore, are important to assess when examining social cognition and sleep.

Assessing the diametrical model of schizotypal and autistic traits in emotion recognition and social functioning in a community sample.

BACKGROUND: Some research suggests that schizotypal and autistic traits can produce opposing effects on the mentalizing domain of social cognition. Although such findings support a diametrical model proposing that psychotic and autistic traits represent opposite extremes of the social brain continuum, results from recent studies have been more inconsistent, and the applicability of this model to other social cognition domains remains unclear. To test the diametrical model more broadly, this study examined the interactions between schizotypal and autistic traits on emotion recognition and social functioning. METHOD: A total of 791 participants recruited from the general population self-reported schizotypal traits using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised (SPQ-BR) and autistic traits using the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ). Participants also completed the Emotion Recognition 40 task and the Specific Levels of Functioning (SLOF) scale. RESULTS: The SPQ subscales of interpersonal relationships and disorganized symptoms interacted significantly with social BAP on overall emotion recognition performance and the accuracy of identifying neutral faces. Supporting the diametrical model, elevated levels of both schizotypal and autistic traits contributed to higher emotion recognition accuracy compared to elevations on only one trait. For social functioning, however, the diametrical model was not supported. A main effect was found such that higher interpersonal relationship difficulties on SPQ predicted lower work skills on SLOF, and higher levels of both schizotypal and autistic traits combined to produce even lower social functioning. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the diametrical model may be more relevant to social cognition than to social functioning.

The paradoxical moderating effects of metacognition in the relationships between self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in anorexia and bulimia.

BACKGROUND: Self-esteem and depressive symptoms contribute to a lower quality of life in people suffering from eating disorders. However, limited research has examined whether other factors may affect how these variables influence one another over time. Metacognition is a previously unexplored determinant that may impact the relationships between self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in instances of eating disorders. AIM: This study sought to examine metacognitive self-reflectivity and mastery as moderators of the relationships between self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and quality of life and to determine if these relationships are different in people with anorexia compared with people with bulimia. METHODS: Participants with anorexia (n=40) and bulimia (n=40) were recruited from outpatient clinics. The participants were assessed on their metacognitive ability and self-reported on measures to assess their depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and quality of life. RESULTS: The results indicate that metacognitive self-reflectivity moderates the relationship between self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in people with anorexia such that when self-reflectivity is high, lower self-esteem and higher depressive symptoms are associated with a lower quality of life. These relationships did not appear to be significant when self-reflectivity was low. In contrast, in the anorexia and bulimia groups, metacognitive mastery appeared to moderate the relationships between self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and quality of life such that when mastery was low, lower self-esteem and higher depressive symptoms were associated with a lower quality of life. These relationships did not appear significant when mastery was high. CONCLUSION: Metacognitive self-reflectivity and mastery seem to play paradoxical moderating roles in the relationships between self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in people with anorexia and bulimia. These findings pave the way toward further research and have important clinical implications.

Activism in the Digital Age: The Link Between Social Media Engagement With Black Lives Matter-Relevant Content and Mental Health.

Introduction: Research shows that participation in political activism on social media is linked to psychological stress. Additionally, race-based stress disproportionately affects minorities and is linked to greater psychological symptoms. Yet, the impact of the social media presence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) on mental health has yet to be meaningfully assessed.Methods: This study assessed whether engagement with BLM-related social media vignettes was related to mental health symptoms in two non-clinical samples (total N = 389), using a mixed-methods design. Participants completed an online survey with social media vignettes, self-report inventories of mental health symptoms, and open-ended questions about experiences with and the impact of BLM.Results: Correlations revealed that greater engagement with BLM-related social media posts was related to more severe mental health symptoms. Further, moderation analyses revealed that race significantly moderated the relationship between engagement and anxiety and trauma-related symptoms, such that these relationships were stronger for participants who identified as racial minorities. Qualitative analyses revealed that most participants who were engaged in mental health treatment had not discussed BLM-related topics with their providers, despite many participants reporting disrupted relationships and negative emotions due to exposure to BLM-related social media content.Discussion: Taken together, results suggest that engagement with BLM-related content online is linked to increased mental health symptoms, but these issues are infrequently addressed in treatment. Future research should extend these findings with clinical samples, assess the comfort of therapists in addressing these topics in therapy, and develop interventions to improve mental health in digital activists.

A preliminary investigation of paranoia variability and its association with social functioning.

Background: Paranoid ideation is a core feature of psychosis and is associated with impaired social functioning. Severity of paranoia can fluctuate across time as symptoms wax and wane; however, no study has systematically investigated how this intra-individual variability in paranoia may relate to social impairments and social functioning. Methods: Fifty-five patients with DSM-5 diagnoses and recent paranoia were followed for up to one year and completed the suspiciousness/persecution section (P6) of the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) on a monthly basis to monitor fluctuations in paranoia. Categorical changes between paranoid and non-paranoid status were monitored and tallied. Participants self-reported current paranoia and anxiety levels as well as social functioning when demonstrating paranoia changes. Results: Most patients showed changes between paranoid categories (60%). Individuals with no paranoia change showed higher current paranoia and lower independence-competence subscores of the Birchwood Social Functioning Scale (SFS) compared with those with one change. Current paranoia and state anxiety explained significant variance in the prosocial activities subscore of SFS, and importantly, paranoia changes accounted for variance above and beyond these effects. Individuals with higher current paranoia participated less in prosocial activities, however those with higher paranoia variability were more involved in social activities. Similarly, individuals with more paranoia variability demonstrated better overall social functioning as measured by the averaged SFS total score. Conclusion: Paranoia fluctuation is prevalent across time, and both paranoia severity and variability impact social functioning, in that lower levels of paranoia severity and higher levels of paranoia variability are associated with better interpersonal functioning.

Validity of remote administration of the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery for individuals with severe mental illness.

The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) is a gold-standard tool for assessing cognitive functioning in individuals with severe mental illness. This study is an initial examination of the validity of remote administration of 4 MCCB tests measuring processing speed (Trail Making Test: Part A, Animal Fluency), working memory (Letter-Number Span), and verbal learning and memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised). We conducted analyses on individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SCZ), as well as healthy volunteers, who were assessed in-person (BD = 80, SCZ = 116, HV = 14) vs. remotely (BD = 93, SCZ = 43, HV = 30) to determine if there were significant differences in performance based on administration format. Additional analyses tested whether remote and in-person assessment performance was similarly correlated with symptom severity, cognitive and social cognitive performance, and functional outcomes. Individuals with BD performed significantly better than those with SCZ on all MCCB subtests across administration format. Animal Fluency did not differ by administration format, but remote participants performed significantly worse on Trail Making and HVLT-R. On the Letter-Number Span task, individuals with bipolar disorder performed significantly better when participating remotely. Finally, patterns of correlations with related constructs were largely similar between administration formats. Thus, results suggest that remote administration of some of the MCCB subtests may be a valid alternative to in-person testing, but more research is necessary to determine why some tasks were affected by administration format.

The dyadic effects of subclinical paranoia on relationship satisfaction in roommate relationships and college adjustment.

Subclinical paranoia is associated with negative psychological and general health consequences including poorer social functioning. Despite extensive research on the outcomes of individuals with greater paranoia, the consequences of interacting with someone who is paranoid are less clear. As social functioning involves interactions between individuals, investigating associations between paranoia and relationship outcomes from a dyadic perspective may aid in elucidating the mechanisms underlying social dysfunction in subclinical paranoia. This study examined the trajectory of new roommate relationships over the course of the college semester. One hundred three same-sex roommate dyads were assessed on pathological personality traits at the beginning of the semester and on roommate relationship satisfaction and college adjustment at 2-week intervals. Individuals who were more paranoid reported lower satisfaction in their roommate relationship and poorer overall college adjustment. Importantly, individuals who lived with a more paranoid roommate also reported lower satisfaction in their roommate relationship. In contrast, elevated psychoticism, in either the individual or their roommate, was not associated with lower roommate relationship satisfaction. These findings demonstrate that the effects of subclinical paranoia extend beyond the paranoid individual to social partners as well. Further, poorer relationship satisfaction appears specifically related to paranoia and does not seem to be associated with increased psychoticism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Amygdala hyperconnectivity in the paranoid state: A transdiagnostic study.

BACKGROUND: Paranoia significantly contributes to social impairments across clinical diagnoses, and amygdala dysfunction has been identified as a neurobiological marker of paranoia among individuals with schizophrenia. Therefore, we aimed to investigate amygdala functional connectivity (FC) in paranoia across diagnoses. METHODS: Forty-five patients with recent history of clinically significant paranoid ideation and a current DSM-5 diagnosis of any disorder underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging either in a paranoid (N = 23) or non-paranoid (N = 22) state. Amygdala FC were compared between paranoid and non-paranoid patients. Supplemental correlation analyses between amygdala FC and paranoia score were performed separately in patients and a non-equivalent healthy control (HC; N = 60) group. RESULTS: Increased FC was found between right amygdala and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) [bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate, medial frontal gyrus, the triangular part and the opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG); right orbital part of IFG], the frontal cortex (bilateral median cingulate, left precentral gyrus), and subcortical areas (right insula) in the paranoid group compared with the non-paranoid group. No significant between-group differences were observed in left amygdala FC. FC between right amygdala and PFC and frontal cortex was positively correlated with paranoia in patient and HC groups. CONCLUSION: Paranoia is associated with right amygdala hyperconnectivity with PFC, frontal cortex, and insula. This hyperconnectivity was evident regardless of diagnosis and therefore identify a likely transdiagnostic neural mechanism, which may help to identify treatment targets that could potentially improve the social functioning of individuals with clinical diagnoses.

Preliminary evidence for the efficacy of single-session transcranial direct current stimulation to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex for reducing subclinical paranoia in healthy individuals.

OBJECTIVES: Paranoia manifests similarly in subclinical and clinical populations and is related to distress and impairment. Previous work links paranoia to amygdala hyperactivity and reduced activation of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), a region thought to regulate amygdala activity. METHODS: This study aimed to reduce subclinical paranoia in 40 undergraduates by increasing activity of the VLPFC via single-session transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). A double-blind, crossover (active vs. sham stimulation) design was used. RESULTS: Paranoia significantly decreased after active stimulation (dz  = 0.51) but not sham (dz  = 0.19), suggesting that tDCS of VLPFC was associated with mean-level reductions in paranoia. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate preliminary support for the role of single-session active stimulation to the VLPFC for reducing subclinical paranoia in healthy individuals. PRACTITIONER POINTS: In both clinical and subclinical populations, paranoia is related to distress and poorer functional outcomes. Paranoia has been linked to overactivation of the amygdala, a brain region responsible for detecting salience and threat, and reduced activation of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), a region thought to modulate and regulate amygdala activity. In this study, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the VLPFC reduced self-reported paranoia in healthy undergraduate students. tDCS may be a promising intervention for reducing paranoia in subclinical and clinical populations. Effects were relatively small and require replication with larger subclinical samples and with clinical samples.

Measuring mentalizing: A comparison of scoring methods for the hinting task.

OBJECTIVE: The Social Cognition Psychometric Evaluation (SCOPE) study supported the utility and practicality of the Hinting task as a measure of social cognition/mentalizing in clinical trials, specifically with the SCOPE authors' stringent scoring system. However, it remains unclear whether the SCOPE scoring system is necessary for the task to be judged as psychometrically sound. METHOD: Independent raters rescored data from the three phases of SCOPE using the Hinting task's original scoring criteria. Psychometric properties of the task when scored with the original criteria versus more stringent SCOPE criteria were compared in a large sample of individuals with chronic schizophrenia (n = 397) and matched controls (n = 300) as well as a smaller sample of individuals with early psychosis (n = 38) and controls (n = 39). RESULTS: In both samples, SCOPE criteria resulted in lowered average scores and reduced ceiling effects. Further, revised scoring resulted in strengthened relationships between the hinting task and outcome measures in the chronic sample, and better differentiated early psychosis patients from controls. Conversely, test-retest reliability and internal consistency estimates were not improved using revised scoring and remained suboptimal, particularly for healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Overall, SCOPE scoring criteria improved some psychometric properties and clinical utility, suggesting that these criteria should be considered for implementation.

Introspective accuracy for social competence in psychometric schizotypy.

Introduction: Deficits in social competence have been identified in schizotypy; however, most studies rely on self-reports of these skills. Deficits in introspective accuracy (IA) have been identified within schizophrenia, and recent work suggests IA is impaired in schizotypy as well. Thus, the perception of poorer social competence among individuals high in schizotypy may be due to inaccurate self-assessments rather than actual skill deficits.Method: This study examined the relationship between schizotypy, perceived social competence, and observed social competence in 137 undergraduate students.Results: Differences in self-reported social competence were found such that individuals high in schizotypy reported greater deficits than individuals low in schizotypy. However, the groups performed comparably on an objective assessment of social competence. Within groups, individuals high in schizotypy underestimated their social competence, whereas controls overestimated their social competence. Thus, both groups demonstrated impairments in IA.Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that individuals high in schizotypal traits perceive that they have poor social competence despite displaying skills that are on par with their peers. Such perceptions may lead to avoidance of social interactions or employment opportunities and could contribute to deficits in social functioning.

Implicit and explicit processing of bodily emotions in schizophrenia.

INTRODUCTION: Disturbed emotion processing is well documented in schizophrenia, but the majority of studies evaluate processing of emotion only from facial expressions. Social cues are also communicated via body posture, and they are similarly relevant for successful social interactions. The aim of the current study was to thoroughly examine body perception abilities in individuals with schizophrenia. METHODS: Fifty-nine patients with schizophrenia and 37 healthy controls completed two tasks of body processing. The first, which was based on the Affect Misattribution Procedure, evaluated implicit processing of bodily emotions, and the second utilised a traditional emotion identification paradigm to assess explicit emotion recognition. RESULTS: Results revealed aberrant implicit processing, but more normative explicit processing, in individuals with schizophrenia. Moderate associations were found between processing of bodies and symptoms of paranoia. Performance on the tasks was not related to cognitive functioning but was associated with clinician-rated social functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these results provide information about disturbed processing of bodily emotions in schizophrenia and suggest that these disturbances are associated with the severity of positive symptoms and predict difficulties in everyday social activities and interpersonal relationships.