title: Subclinical negative symptoms and the anticipation, experience and recall of emotions related to social interactions: An experimental study.
abstract: Healthy individuals use anticipated and recalled emotions to guide their decisions to seek out social interactions. It is unknown whether individuals with negative symptoms of schizophrenia, who are commonly observed to socially withdraw, show a bias in anticipation and recall of emotions related to a social interaction. To close this knowledge gap, this study examines whether higher levels of subclinical negative symptoms are associated with less positive and more negative anticipated and recalled emotions related to a social interaction. In a mixed model design participants were instructed to either predict or to experience and then recall emotions related to a simulated social inclusion- or exclusion-interaction. Disregarding the type of situation, participants with higher levels of subclinical negative symptoms anticipated more intense fear than participants with lower levels of subclinical negative symptoms. Divided by type of situation, however, participants with higher levels of negative symptoms experienced and recalled more sadness related to being socially included and even recalled more positive emotions after being excluded. These specific associations are likely to reflect negative expectations about potentially rewarding social situations in people with negative symptoms. A replication in populations with clinically relevant negative symptoms and inclusion of measures to assess memory is warranted.
authors.affiliation: University of Hamburg, Institute of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: maike.engel@uni-hamburg.de.
authors.forename: Maike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.affiliation: University of Hamburg, Institute of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fritzsche
authors.affiliation: University of Hamburg, Institute of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tania Marie
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Lincoln
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D004644:Emotions; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anticipation; Cyberball; Emotion; Social interaction; Subclinical negative symptoms