Expressed emotion, attributions, and schizophrenia symptom dimensions.

Using a sample of 40 Anglo American family members of schizophrenic patients, the present study replicates and lends cross-cultural support for an attribution–affect model of expressed emotion (EE). Consistent with attribution theory, the authors found that highly critical relatives (high-EE) viewed the illness and associated symptoms as residing more within the patient's personal control as compared with less critical relatives (low-EE). A content analysis classified the types of behaviors and symptoms most frequently criticized by relatives. Symptoms reflecting behavioral deficits (e.g., poor hygiene) were found to be criticized more often than symptoms reflecting behavioral excesses (e.g., hallucinations). In line with an attribution–affect framework, relatives may be less tolerant of behavioral deficits because they are viewed as intentional, whereas behavioral excesses are easily recognized as core symptoms of mental illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anhedonia, positive and negative affect, and social functioning in schizophrenia

This study examines the relationship between anhedonia and the trait dimensions of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) in schizophrenia. The relationship between poor social functioning in schizophrenia and these individual differences in affectivity is also examined. Schizophrenia outpatients (n = 37) and normal controls (n = 15) were assessed at a baseline evaluation and again approximately 90 days later. Consistent with the hypothesized decrease in hedonic capacity in schizophrenia, patients reported significantly greater physical and social anhedonia and less PA than controls. However, the schizophrenia group also reported significantly greater NA and social anxiety than did controls. In support of the dispositional view of these individual differences in affectivity, trait measures demonstrated test-retest reliability, and group differences between the schizophrenia group and controls were stable over the 90-day followup period. Within the schizophrenia group, physical and social anhedonia were comparably negatively correlated with trait PA; however, social but not physical anhedonia was significantly positively correlated with NA and social anxiety. Poor social functioning in the schizophrenia group was associated with greater physical and social anhedonia and greater NA and social anxiety. Alternatively, greater trait PA was related to better social functioning. These findings indicate that schizophrenia is characterized by both low PA and elevated NA and that these affective characteristics are a stable feature of the illness. The results also suggest important links between affect and social functioning in schizophrenia.     

Positive affect, negative affect, and social interaction.

Two studies explored the relations of positive and negative affect (PA and NA) to social interaction. In Study 1, unacquainted dyads were surreptitiously videotaped as they participated in a 6-min interaction. Participants then evaluated the quality of the interaction. Independent observers also rated the videotaped interactions. Trait PA was positively related to both participant and observer evaluations of interaction quality. In Study 2, undergraduates kept diaries of their social interactions for 1 week, PA was again related to interaction quality. Both PA and NA were positively related to the number of interactions in which participants engaged, and the amount of time spent engaged in social contact, although different types of social encounters produced these relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed emotion and sociocultural moderation in the course of schizophrenia.

This study examined whether the sociocultural context moderates the relationship between families' expressed emotion (EE) and clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. In a sample of 60 Mexican American caregivers and their ill relatives, we first assessed whether EE and its indices (criticism, emotional overinvolvement [EOI], and warmth) related to relapse. Second, we extended the analysis of EE and its indices to a longitudinal assessment of symptomatology. Last, we tested whether bidimensional acculturation moderated the relationship between EE (and its indices) and both relapse and symptom trajectory over time. Results indicated that EOI was associated with increased relapse and that criticism was associated with increased symptomatology. Additionally, as patients' Mexican enculturation (Spanish language and media involvement) decreased, EE was increasingly related to relapse. For symptomatology, as patients' U.S. acculturation (English language and media involvement) increased, EE was associated with increased symptoms longitudinally. Our results replicate and extend past research on how culture might shape the way family factors relate to the course of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information processing, social skill, and gender in schizophrenia

The relationships among information processing, social skill, and gender in individuals with chronic schizophrenia were investigated. Although there were no gender differences in information processing, social skill, or negative symptoms, performance on information-processing tasks was related to various indices of social skill (e.g., paralinguistic skill) for female, but not male, inpatients. This pattern of results remained after statistical controls were applied for age, illness chronicity, and positive symptoms.     

Tobacco withdrawal and negative affect: An analysis of initial emotional response intensity and voluntary emotion regulation.

This report used emotion-modulated startle to refine theoretically critical claims about negative affect during tobacco withdrawal. Forty-eight dependent smokers (assigned to either a 24-hr nicotine withdrawal condition or a continued smoking condition) and 48 nonsmokers participated in this study. Participants viewed a series of neutral and unpleasant photographic images and were instructed to enhance, suppress, or maintain their emotional response during specific trials. Participants' startle response was measured before and after this regulation instruction to index 2 components of emotional response: initial negative emotional response intensity and emotion regulation. Compared with the nonwithdrawn groups (continuing smokers and nonsmokers), withdrawal significantly increased self-reported negative affect. However, startle response indicated that emotional response intensity and emotion regulation success were not affected by withdrawal. These results are important because they constrain interpretation of the predominantly self-report literature on the affective consequences of tobacco withdrawal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention to gaze and emotion in schizophrenia.

Objective: Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty interpreting social and emotional cues such as facial expression, gaze direction, body position, and voice intonation. Nonverbal cues are powerful social signals but are often processed implicitly, outside the focus of attention. The aim of this research was to assess implicit processing of social cues in individuals with schizophrenia. Method: Patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and matched controls performed a primary task of word classification with social cues in the background. Participants were asked to classify target words (LEFT/RIGHT) by pressing a key that corresponded to the word, in the context of facial expressions with eye gaze averted to the left or right. Results: Although facial expression and gaze direction were irrelevant to the task, these facial cues influenced word classification performance. Participants were slower to classify target words (e.g., LEFT) that were incongruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the right) compared to target words (e.g., LEFT) that were congruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the left), but this only occurred for expressions of fear. This pattern did not differ for patients and controls. Conclusion: The results showed that threat-related signals capture the attention of individuals with schizophrenia. These data suggest that implicit processing of eye gaze and fearful expressions is intact in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flat affect in schizophrenia does not reflect diminished subjective experience of emotion.

Although accorded historical significance, affective features of schizophrenia have only begun to receive systematic empirical attention. Interestingly, both early psychopathology writers and more recent investigators have reported frequent discrepancies between schizophrenics' feelings and outward expressions of emotion. Using a more comprehensive assessment of emotion, the present study examines the relationship between emotional experience and expression in a sample of medication-free schizophrenics. Compared with their normal counterparts, schizophrenics were indeed much less facially expressive of both positive and negative emotions during emotion-eliciting films, yet they reported experiencing as much positive and negative emotion. Therefore, the blunted affect typical of some schizophrenics misrepresents their underlying emotional experience. Future research into an inhibition hypothesis is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The induced affect response: 10-week-old infants' responses to three emotion expressions.

Responses to mothers' presentations of happy, sad, and angry faces were studied in a sample of 12 infants, 6 boys and 6 girls at age 10 weeks?±?5 days. Each infant's mother displayed noncontingent, practiced facial and vocal expressions of the 3 emotions. Each expression occurred 4 times, with a 20-s head-turn-away between presentations. The orders of presentation were randomly assigned within sex of infant. Mothers' and infants' facial behaviors were coded using the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System. The data indicated that (a) the infants discriminated each emotion, (b) apparent matching responses may occur under some conditions but not all, and (c) these apparent matching responses were only a part of nonrandom behavior patterns indicating induced emotional or affective responses of infants to mothers' expressions. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nicotine, negative affect, and depression.

Depression, whether conceptualized as a trait, symptom, or as a diagnosable disorder, is overrepresented among smokers. Depressed smokers appear to experience more withdrawal symptoms on quitting, are less likely to be successful at quitting, and are more likely to relapse. This article documents these relationships and explores several potential links between smoking and depression. The potential efficacy of antidepressant therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and nicotine replacement therapy for smokers with depressive disorders or traits is discussed. Clinical implications and the role of patient treatment matching are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent–adolescent reciprocity in negative affect and its relation to early adult social development.

The purposes of this 9-year, prospective longitudinal study were (a) to investigate hypothesized reciprocal growth in negative emotions between parents and adolescents and (b) to examine the influence of this reciprocal process on the development of social relationships during early adulthood. The results showed that both parents' and adolescents' initial levels of negative emotion toward each other predicted the rate of growth and rate of change in growth of expressed negative affect. In addition, the analyses indicated that an adolescent's enmeshment in reciprocal negativity in the family of origin carried over into early adult social relationships. The findings demonstrate the reciprocal nature of negative affect in interactions between parents and adolescents and suggest that family experience with this interactional style may have an adverse influence on the development of early adult social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed emotion. Trait or state?

BACKGROUND: This exploratory study addresses the question of whether expressed emotion (EE) is a response characteristic of the parent (trait) or a parental response to specific circumstances or persons (state). METHOD: Seventeen parents participated in two audiotaped interviews, using modified versions of the Camberwell Family Interview. One interview concerned the child with chronic schizophrenia and the other a well sibling. Subsequent ratings of the EE variables of critical comments (CC), emotional overinvolvement (EOI) and warmth were completed and compared. RESULTS: EE response patterns directed towards patients, as compared with towards siblings, were significantly different on two measures: EOI (P = 0.01) and warmth (P = 0.02). The parents showed significantly more emotional overinvolvement with the child with schizophrenia and significantly more warmth towards the well child. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the EE variables of EOI and warmth are related to the state of child, and the lack of a significant difference in CC suggests that this is a parental trait.     

Associations among perceptions of social support, negative affect, and quality of sleep in caregivers and noncaregivers.

The authors used structural equation modeling to examine associations among perceptions of negative affect, social support, and quality of sleep in a sample of caregivers (n = 175) and noncaregiver control participants (n = 169). The authors hypothesized that caregiver status would be related to sleep quality directly and also indirectly by way of negative affect and social support. This hypothesis was partially supported in that caregiving was found to be indirectly related to sleep quality. However, after accounting for the indirect effects of negative affect and social support, the direct effect of caregiving on sleep quality was no longer statistically significant. The structural model accounted for approximately 43% of the variance in sleep quality. The present findings may be useful in the development of successful sleep interventions for caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, and negative affect.

In order to help resolve the ongoing debate about the relationship between and the functions of self-esteem and generalized self-efficacy (GSE), the authors tested the hypotheses that GSE predicts future self-esteem and that self-esteem predicts unique incremental variance in future negative affect. Measures of these three constructs were administered to two samples of undergraduates (N = 160 and N = 75) twice over five-six weeks. Time 1 GSE accounted for significant variance in Time 2 self-esteem in both studies, 1.6% of the variance in Study 1 and 4.6% of the variance in Study 2, after controlling for Time 1 self-esteem. Time 1 self-esteem did not predict Time 2 GSE in either study. Self-esteem accounted for significant variance in negative affect in Study 1. Results suggest that GSE and self-esteem are distinct, that GSE may play a role in the development of self-esteem, and that self-esteem may help shape negative affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed emotion and relapse in alcoholic patients

Although family members' expressed emotion (EE) predicts patients' elevated relapse rates in schizophrenia and mood disorders, little is known about the relationship between EE and relapse in alcoholism. For 86 alcoholic patients (78 men, 8 women), the association between the spouse's EE and the alcoholic patient's subsequent relapse status in the 12 months after the couple began an outpatient behavioral marital therapy (BMT) program for alcoholism was examined. Alcoholic patients with high EE spouses, when compared with their counterparts with low EE spouses, were more likely to relapse, had a shorter time to relapse, and drank on a greater percentage of days in the 12 months after starting BMT. EE continued to be associated with relapse after patients' age, education, and alcohol problem severity were taken into account. Greater use of Antabuse and more sessions of BMT were associated with reduced relapse for alcoholic patients with high EE spouses.     

Spontaneous emotion regulation during evaluated speaking tasks: Associations with negative affect, anxiety expression, memory, and physiological responding.

In these studies, the correlates of spontaneously using expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal during stressful speeches were examined. Spontaneous emotion regulation means that there were no instructions of how to regulate emotions during the speech. Instead, participants indicated after the speech to what extent they used self-motivated expressive suppression or reappraisal during the task. The results show that suppression is associated with less anxiety expression, greater physiological responding, and less memory for the speech while having no impact on negative affect. In contrast, reappraisal has no impact on physiology and memory while leading to less expression and affect. Taken together, spontaneous emotion regulation in active coping tasks has similar consequences as experimentally induced emotion regulation in passive tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, schizophrenia, and social attraction.

J. C. Coyne (see PA, Vol 56:02455 and 61:1146) has shown that after interacting with depressed patients, Ss report feeling depressed themselves and rejecting toward the depressed person. In the present study, measures (e.g., Mood Adjective Check List, Interpersonal Check List) were obtained from 216 undergraduates who listened to tapes of interviews with either hospitalized depressive, hospitalized schizophrenics, or normal hospital staff. Results show that schizophrenics aroused dysphoric feelings similar although not identical to those feelings aroused by depressives, and in the case of males they were equally rejected. In addition, the schizophrenics and, to a lesser extent, the depressives were seen as weak, submissive, and less capable of offering a positive relationship. Modifications of the Coyne position are suggested. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working memory capacity and spontaneous emotion regulation: High capacity predicts self-enhancement in response to negative feedback.

Although previous evidence suggests that working memory capacity (WMC) is important for success at emotion regulation, that evidence may reveal simply that people with higher WMC follow instructions better than those with lower WMC. The present study tested the hypothesis that people with higher WMC more effectively engage in spontaneous emotion regulation following negative feedback, relative to those with lower WMC. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either no feedback or negative feedback about their emotional intelligence. They then completed a disguised measure of self-enhancement and a self-report measure of affect. Experimental condition and WMC interacted such that higher WMC predicted more self-enhancement and less negative affect following negative feedback. This research provides novel insight into the consequences of individual differences in WMC and illustrates that cognitive capacity may facilitate the spontaneous self-regulation of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Loneliness and social skill deficits.

Exp I compared conversational behaviors of 48 high-lonely and low-lonely college students (UCLA Loneliness Scale) during brief heterosexual interactions. Results indicate that the 2 loneliness groups differed significantly in their use of a specific class of conversational behaviors termed partner attention, with high-lonely as compared to low-lonely Ss giving less attention to their partners. Exp II directly manipulated the use of partner attention in a group of 18 high-lonely male undergraduates. For that group, increased use of partner attention during dyadic interactions resulted in a significantly greater change in loneliness and related variables relative to interaction-only and no-contact control groups. The utility of conceptualizing loneliness as a social skills problem is discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-focused attention, gender, gender role, and vulnerability to negative affect.

Research has independently shown that both gender and self-focused attention are linked to depression. In this article, we report a series of studies investigating the relation between these variables. Using a standard self-focusing manipulation, Study 1 suggested that women evidence a greater propensity to self-focus than men. We replicated these findings in Study 2. In Study 3, we conducted an experiment to determine if sex role in conjuction with experimentally increased self-focused attention would lead to more emotional distress after a negative event had occurred. Results suggested that feminine individuals who received a self-focusing manipulation responded with greater levels of self-focused attention and negative affect than did any other group. We interpreted findings in terms of a tendency to self-focus that might prime feminine people to experience depression, or alternately, as a lack of self-focusing that may insulate masculine individuals from the experience of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)