College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Motivation and Effort in Individuals with Social Anhedonia(2012) McCarthy, Julie; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study sought to better understand differences in motivation and effort in individuals with social anhedonia. Social anhedonia is a core negative symptom and one of the strongest predictors for the development of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Because current research examining motivation and effort deficits has focused on self-report questionnaires and behavioral tasks, little is known about possible underlying mechanisms of social anhedonia. Thus, the current study examined effortful decision making (monetary reward task) and physiological measures of effort mobilization (cardiovascular reactivity) and investigated whether findings were specific to social anhedonia or were shared with positive symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (e.g., perceptual aberrations and magical ideation, together referred to as `PerMag') and healthy controls. Results indicated that elevated social anhedonia was related to more effortful decision making in the context of uncertain probability of reward, but there were no group differences with respect to physiological measures of effort.Item FILM-INDUCED EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION IN SOCIAL ANHEDONIA(2009) Carreno, Jaime T.; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social anhedonia is an important feature of schizophrenia and it is a promising indicator of latent liability for the disorder. Although social anhedonia is defined as an affective construct, only a limited number of studies have investigated the affective and behavioral correlates of the construct. Studies that have looked at these variables have been limited by a lack of appropriate measures of affiliation, control for contributions of current depressive symptoms and inclusion of both male and female participants. The current study sought to extend past research by addressing the limitations listed above. A cohort of psychometrically identified social anhedonics and normally hedonic controls were identified from a large college sample. The participants completed a clinical interview and a series of questionnaires. The clinical interviews focused on current and past mood disorders, schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders. The questionnaires focused on self-reports of current depressive symptoms and general tendencies to express emotion. The participants were then presented with a series of affect eliciting films clip during which their emotional expressions were recorded. After each film, they were asked to self report their affective state. Contrary to past studies and current hypothesizes social anhedonics did not differ from controls in terms of emotional experience or emotional expression. The lack of findings could be as a result of small sample sizes, lack of validated self-report measures of emotional experience, or the nature of the limited sample of behavior collected among other study limitations.Item Reports of Emotional Expressivity and Willingness to Associate in Peers of Social Anhedonics.(2006-12-11) Carreno, Jaime T.; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite promising research on social anhedonia as an indicator of schizotypy, little is known about the social correlates of this construct. The current study examined peer relationships and emotional expressivity of individuals classified as socially anhedonic. Specifically, this study sought to examine to what degree diminished emotional expressivity in anhedonics occurs, and if it may contribute to social difficulties. Social anhedonics and controls were recruited from a college sample. The roommates of participants were also contacted and asked to complete ratings of emotional expressivity, willingness to interact, and a social pleasure scale. Social anhedonics reported diminished emotional expressivity and also reported poorer social adjustment when compared to controls. Anhedonics did not differ from controls in their ratings of school or familial adjustment. Contrary to expectations, groups did not differ with respect to peer-rated expressivity, willingness to associate or social pleasure.