College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/8

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.social anhedonia

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    THE ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL ANHEDONIA WITH ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP PROCESSES
    (2016) Assaad, Lily; Lemay, Edward; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Social anhedonia is a deficiency in the capacity to experience pleasure from social interactions. This study examined the implications of social anhedonia for romantic relationship functioning, including the association of social anhedonia with sentiments towards romantic partners that are central to relationship functioning (satisfaction, commitment, regard, and care), analogous perceptions of the partner’s sentiments, hostile behavior during relationship conflict, and perception of the partner’s hostile behavior. Data were collected from 281 participants who were involved in romantic relationships. Support was found for social anhedonia’s hypothesized negative association with satisfaction, regard, and care, as well as all four perceived partner sentiments. These associations were independent of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Additionally, attachment avoidance mediated social anhedonia’s relationship with commitment. However, no support was found for social anhedonia’s hypothesized positive association with actual and perceived partner hostile behavior. Results suggest that social anhedonia may undermine the functioning of interpersonal relationships.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Schizophrenia-spectrum Behavior and Peer Responses to Individuals with Social Anhedonia
    (2012) Baker, Bryann Renee; Blanchard, Jack J.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Individuals with social anhedonia experience difficulties in several domains including social interaction, cognition, psychophysiological abnormalities, and poor long-term functional outcomes. These individuals also exhibit high levels of behaviors of schizoidia and schizotypy in comparison to healthy controls. This study aimed to examine behavior related to schizoidia and schizotypy, their longitudinal stability and whether these behaviors are related to social functioning. For the first time, this research moves beyond self-report data and evaluates how peers respond to individuals with social anhedonia in a brief time frame. The current study utilized a psychometric high-risk sample of individuals with social anhedonia and healthy controls that participated in a three year longitudinal study and examined the stability of the sample's schizoid and schizotypal behaviors. Further, this study investigated peer reactions to these individuals as well as the relationship between peer reactions and schizoid and schizotypal behaviors. Individuals with social anhedonia demonstrated higher levels of both schizoid and schizotypal behavior at the baseline period, as expected. These differences persisted into the follow-up assessment for schizoid behavior, but not for schizotypal behavior. Peers reported that they were less willing to interact with individuals with social anhedonia and that these individuals were less likable, less friendly and more odd than healthy controls at both the baseline and three-year follow-up period. Further, in regression analyses several patterns emerged to suggest that schizoid behaviors explain a significant amount of variance in these peer responses. This study is the first study to examine the relationship between schizophrenia-spectrum behaviors and peer responses in individuals with social anhedonia and healthy controls.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Social Behaviors and Emotional Characteristics of Individuals Elevated on Social Anhedonia
    (2010) Llerena, Katiah; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research suggests that social anhedonia (SocAnh) is a promising indicator for the vulnerability towards developing schizophrenia-spectrum disorders as well as an important determinant of the social impairment associated within these disorders. In this study we sought to examine the hypothesis that, within social affiliative interactions, individuals with SocAnh demonstrate problematic behavioral skills and experiential deficits. The current study compared controls (n=54) to individuals elevated on SocAnh (n=42) within a videotaped social interaction focusing on an initial affiliative interaction. Compared to controls, participants with SocAnh were rated as less behaviorally affiliative and they were rated as having overall lower social skills. There were no group differences on ratings of facial affect. SocAnh participants reported experiencing less positive affect in response to the social interaction, were less willing to engage in future social interactions with their interaction partner, and had less affiliative reactions toward the interaction partner. Results converge with prior findings in that individuals with SocAnh may experience less positive and affiliative reactions in response to social interactions. They may also be less apt in interacting with social partners in affiliative ways. Notably, results of the current study also demonstrate that the simulated live social interaction developed for the current study may better elicit social affiliative behaviors and experiences than previous stimuli.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A simulated live interaction to examine behavioral correlates of social cognition in individuals with social anhedonia
    (2010) Park, Stephanie Grace; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure, is a core negative symptom of schizophrenia and is one of the strongest predictors for the development of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. However, much is unknown about the processes that underlie social behavior in individuals with social anhedonia. The current study examined differences in social skillfulness, social functioning, and social cognition between these individuals and controls using a simulated live interaction, self-report measures, and assessments of social cognition. Results showed that, compared to controls, individuals with social anhedonia (1) reported lower levels of social functioning and social support, (2) were rated as having poorer overall social skill and affiliation, but (3) did not differ on three assessments of social cognition. Thus, social cognitive processes do not appear to explain the social deficits seen in individuals with social anhedonia, and future research ought to examine the role of other domains such as emotion or motivation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Refining the Psychometric High-Risk Paradigm: Examining Negative Symptom Traits for the Identification of Schizotypy
    (2004-02-10) Adams, Kimberly A; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research supports social anhedonia's significance as a schizotypy indicator. However, social anhedonia is only one of several negative symptoms demonstrating an important relationship with premorbid functioning, medication response, and prognosis in schizophrenia. Despite these findings, the psychometric assessment of schizophrenia has focused primarily on social anhedonia. Negative symptom research indicates that avolition, apathy, and diminished emotional expression might be useful to include as potential schizotypy indicators. This thesis examined the relationship between social anhedonia and other negative symptom-related traits, in a college sample using factor analysis and taxometric analyses. Social anhedonia loaded on the same factor as diminished emotional expression and (low) positive affect and this factor was independent of a factor comprised of positive symptom traits (perceptual aberrations and magical ideation). Despite the strong relationship between social anhedonia and the negative symptom traits, these other measures were not associated with the taxon identified by the RSAS.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Refining the prediction of risk for schizophrenia: Combining putative genetic and neurodevelopmental measures to predict schizophrenia-spectrum pathology
    (2004-01-27) aghevli, minu arianne; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Social anhedonia may be a promising indicator of an underlying genetic liability for schizophrenia. However, among socially anhedonic individuals, only a minority shows schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. In attempting to understand who may develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, researchers have hypothesized that schizophrenia may require both genetic risk and the presence of early environmental stressors (e.g., obstetric complications). "Developmental instability," which pertains to such early environmental stressors, refers to an organism's inability to buffer the effects of environmental insults on development, and has been associated with genetic risk for schizophrenia. Although one might expect developmental instability to also be elevated in individuals at psychometrically-determined risk for schizophrenia, this hypothesis has not been well-tested. This study examined two related questions using a cohort of psychometrically-identified high risk (socially anhedonic) and control 18- year-olds, and their biological mothers: First, are measures of environmental insult (i.e., developmental instability and obstetric complications) higher in individuals at presumed genetic risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (i.e., socially anhedonic individuals)? Second, do measures of environmental insult interact with putative genetic risk to predict poorer functioning on measures of clinical psychopathology and neurocognitive ability? Developmental instability was studied using fingerprints, minor physical anomalies and handedness. Obstetric history was obtained from biological mothers where possible. Results showed that socially anhedonic subjects had higher rates of one DI measure (minor physical anomalies) than controls. In addition, they were more clinically impaired in terms of mood disorders and schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders, as well as overall functioning. Minor physical anomalies were also associated with higher ratings of schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorder symptoms within social anhedonics. Finally, there was an interaction between social anhedonia status and minor physical anomalies for Schizoid Personality Disorder symptoms, with the interaction associated with greater pathology over and above the contributions of each variable separately. These results support social anhedonia as an indicator of genetic liability for schizophrenia. Moreover, they suggest that developmental instability is associated with psychometrically-measured risk for schizophrenia, as well as with clinical pathology. The interaction between social anhedonia status and minor physical anomalies is in line with previous research demonstrating an interaction between genetic risk and environmental stressors.