Impaired social learning in patients with major depressive disorder revealed by a reinforcement learning model

Background/objectivePatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have altered learning rates for rewards and losses in non-social learning paradigms. However, it is not well understood whether the ability to learn from social interactions is altered in MDD patients. Using reinforcement learning during the repeated Trust Game (rTG), we investigated how MDD patients learn to trust newly-met partners in MDD patients.MethodSixty-eight MDD patients and fifty-four controls each played as ‘investor’ and interacted with ten different partners. We manipulated both the level of trustworthiness by varying the chance of reciprocity (10, 30, 50, 70 and 90%) and reputation disclosure, where partners’ reputation was either pre-disclosed or hidden.ResultsOur reinforcement learning model revealed that MDD patients had significantly higher learning rates for losses than the controls in both the reputation disclosure and non-disclosure condition. The difference was larger when reputation was not disclosed than disclosed. We observed no difference in learning rates for gains in either condition.ConclusionsOur findings highlight that abnormal learning for losses underlies the social learning process in MDD patients. This abnormality is higher when situational unpredictability is high versus low. Our findings provide novel insights into social rehabilitation of MDD.     

Self-Acceptance Group Therapy: A Transdiagnostic,Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Shame

Shame has broad importance to psychological problems. However, few interventions specifically address shame, and most of these have been designed to target shame in the context of particular disorders. Self-Acceptance Group Therapy (SAGT) was developed as a transdiagnostic shame-focused treatment, based on a cognitive-behavioral framework. SAGT is an 8-week treatment that involves psychoeducation and training in the use of cognitive and behavioral shame regulation and support-building skills in order to promote self-acceptance. After describing SAGT, the study presented used an open trial design to examine the utility of SAGT for addressing shame, self-acceptance, quality of life, and relevant psychological problems (e.g., depression, social anxiety). Twenty-four outpatients with elevated shame were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 1-month follow-up. By post-treatment, results revealed significant improvements in self-acceptance, shame, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms among treatment completers (n = 18), with all of these improvements maintained at follow-up. Additionally, significant improvements in quality of life, emotion dysregulation, depression, loneliness, and stress were observed at follow-up. Results provide preliminary support for SAGT’s utility in the treatment of shame and related pathology among diverse outpatients.     

Conducting Outcomes Research in a Clinical Practice Setting: The Effectiveness and Acceptability of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in a Partial Hospital Program

Multiple challenges exist integrating research into clinical practice, particularly in acute care settings where randomized controlled trials may be impractical or unethical. Partial or day hospitals are one such setting. As compared to outpatients and inpatients, relatively little research is conducted or reported in partial hospital program (PHP) patients, leaving providers in this setting without a solid empirical basis from which to draw. We report treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction from the first 750 patients enrolled in a clinical research PHP utilizing the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) treatment model. ACT is a well-established, transdiagnostic behavior therapy. However, to date no study has examined the use of ACT in acute day hospitals. We hypothesized that applying ACT with this patient group would result in significantly improved depression, anxiety, functioning, and quality of life from intake to discharge. We additionally expected that patients would report high satisfaction with ACT treatment groups. Patients (n = 750 full sample, n = 518 completed treatment) completed daily measures of symptoms, functioning, and ACT processes at intake and discharge, and postgroup satisfaction surveys. Results showed significant improvements in symptoms and impairment. ACT process variables also increased over the course of treatment. Importantly, patient satisfaction was high for all groups. Thus, ACT provides an appropriate, flexible, effective, and satisfactory model for this patient group. A comparison of our findings using ACT to the limited research using other models in PHP settings is discussed, as well as challenges in the overall process of integrating research into routine clinical care.     

Affect and between-meal snacking in daily life: the moderating role of gender and age

Objective: Affect-related energy intake from snacks remains relatively unexplored in daily life. This study examines the associations between momentary positive affect (PA) and momentary negative affect (NA) and subsequent energy intake from snacks. In addition, the moderating role of BMI, gender, age and level of education is investigated.

Design: Adults (N = 269), aged 20–50, participated in this study. Demographics were assessed in an online composite questionnaire. An experience sampling smartphone application was used to map momentary NA/PA and energy intake (kilocalories) from snacks in the context of daily life.

Main outcome measures: Energy intake from moment-to-moment self-reported snacks in real-life settings.

Results: A significant negative main effect of momentary NA on moment-to-moment energy intake was found. The higher the momentary NA, the lower the subsequent amount of kilocalories consumed. There was no main effect with regard to PA. Interaction analyses showed that men decreased their energy intake after experiencing NA, and increased their intake after experiencing PA. No associations were found in women. Additionally, young adults (20–30) increased their energy intake after experiencing PA. No associations were found in the other age groups.

Conclusion: Interventions aiming at reducing energy intake might also address PA-related snacking in young adults and men.     

Social context influences infants’ ability to extract statistical information from a sequence of gestures

Infants’ social environment is rich of complex sequences of events and actions. This study investigates whether 12-month-old infants are able to learn statistical regularities from a sequence of human gestures and whether this ability is affected by a social vs non-social context. Using a visual familiarization task, infants were familiarized to a continuous sequence of eight videos in which two women imitated each other performing arm gestures. The sequence of videos in which the two women performed imitative gestures was organized into 4 different gesture units. Videos within a gesture unit had a highly predictable transitional probability, while such transition was less predictable between gesture units. The social context was manipulated varying the mutual gaze of the actors and their body orientation. At test, infants were able to discriminate between the high- and low-predictable gesture units in the social, but not in the non-social condition. Results demonstrate that infants are capable to detect statistical regularities from a sequence of human gestures performed by two different individuals. Moreover, our findings indicate that salient social cues can modulate infants’ ability to extract statistical information from a sequence of gestures.     

Social anxiety and the experience of positive emotion and anger in everyday life: an ecological momentary assessment approach

Abstract

A few recent studies have found evidence showing that social anxiety is associated with diminished positive affect and elevated anger. However, prior work has relied on trait self-report measures of global positive mood or anger. In this preliminary study, we examined how trait social anxiety relates to moment-to-moment positive and angry emotional states as people navigate through their natural environment in a given day. Of additional interest was whether any associations were limited to social situations or were evident more broadly in non-social situations as well. For 14 days, 38 non-clinical community adults carried electronic diaries to assess their experience of positive emotions, anger, and their current social context and activity. Participants were randomly prompted up to four times per day, leading to 1702 observations. Results showed that social anxiety was associated with less time spent feeling happy and relaxed and more time spent feeling angry throughout the day. In general, people felt happier when they were with other people compared to being alone. Interestingly, people with relatively higher levels of social anxiety reported fewer and less intense positive emotions and greater anger episodes across social and non-social situations.     

Social Anxiety,Social Skills and Expectancy/ Cost of Negative Social Events

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between social anxiety, social skills and estimated cost as well as expectancy of negative social/non-social events. One hundred and twenty-six students (half males and half females) filled in the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI), the Social Skills Inventory (SSI), and measures of expectancy and estimated cost of negative social and non-social events. Social anxiety was negatively correlated with self-reported social skills. Further, social anxiety was strongly related to both expectancy and estimated cost of negative social, as opposed to non-social, events. Social skills were related to expectancy, but not to estimated cost of negative social events. Finally, the correlation between social anxiety and expectancy of negative social events disappeared when social control (measured with a subscale of SSI) was partialized out of the relationship, whereas the correlation between social anxiety and estimated cost of negative social events did not. Potential therapeutic implications are discussed.     

Wisdom of the social versus non-social crowd in face identification

Face identification is more accurate when people collaborate in social dyads than when they work alone (Dowsett & Burton, 2015, Br. J. Psychol., 106, 433). Identification accuracy is also increased when the responses of two people are averaged for each item to create a ‘non-social’ dyad (White, Burton, Kemp, & Jenkins, 2013, Appl. Cogn. Psychol., 27, 769; White et al., 2015, Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci., 282, 20151292). Does social collaboration add to the benefits of response averaging for face identification? We compared individuals, social dyads, and non-social dyads on an unfamiliar face identity-matching test. We also simulated non-social collaborations for larger groups of people. Individuals and social dyads judged whether face image pairs depicted the same- or different identities, responding on a 5-point certainty scale. Non-social dyads were constructed by averaging the responses of paired individuals. Both social and non-social dyads were more accurate than individuals. There was no advantage for social over non-social dyads. For larger non-social groups, performance peaked at near perfection with a crowd size of eight participants. We tested three computational models of social collaboration and found that social dyad performance was predicted by the decision of the more accurate partner. We conclude that social interaction does not bolster accuracy for unfamiliar face identity matching in dyads beyond what can be achieved by averaging judgements.     

Development and validation of a scale of social and moral judgments (ABB scale) and its use in prison settings

IntroductionThe traditional approach to value judgments involves determining the position of an individual on a scale designed to evaluate the underlying mechanisms and dimensions of judgments.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale among a general population and to apply it to individuals particularly affected by, or directly involved in, acts of transgression.MethodThe scale comprises three types of behavior involving an expression of personal values (atypism or idiosyncratic behavior) or a violation of moral or conventional standards. Subjects were asked to assess a range of actions and behaviors on three dimensions (Likert format): seriousness, excusability and rejection of the transgressor.Results and conclusionAs predicted, factor analysis shows a clear hierarchy of values. The results demonstrate the multidimensional nature of the instrument and indicate good reliability. Tolerance and severity indices were developed to understand the underlying dynamics of social and moral judgments. The study found that inmates’ judgments of violations and transgressions differed in some respects from the judgments made by the general population. The influence of context and the role of group membership as an explanatory factor are examined from the point of view of the identity strategies used.     

Beyond Negative Affectivity: A Hierarchical Model of Global and Transdiagnostic Vulnerabilities for Emotional Disorders

Background: Negative affectivity (NA) has been linked to anxiety and depression (DEP). Identifying the common factors between anxiety and DEP is important when explaining their overlap and comorbidity. However, general factors such as NA tend to have differential relationships with different disorders, suggesting the need to identify mediators in order to explicate these relationships. Methods: The current study tests a theoretically and empirically derived hierarchical model of emotional disorders including both a general factor (NA) and transdiagnostic risk factors [anxiety sensitivity (AS) and intolerance of uncertainty (IoU)] using structural equation modeling. AS was tested as a mid-level factor between NA and panic disorder/agoraphobia, while IoU was tested as a mid-level factor between NA and social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and DEP. Data from 642 clinical outpatients with a heterogeneous presentation of emotional disorders were available for analysis. Results: The hierarchical model fits the data adequately. Moreover, while a simplified model removing AS and IoU fits the data well, it resulted in a significant loss of information for all latent disorder constructs. Limitations: Data were unavailable to estimate post-traumatic stress disorder or specific phobias. Future work will need to extend to other emotional disorders. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the importance of both general factors that link disorders together and semi-specific transdiagnostic factors partially explaining their heterogeneity. Including these mid-level factors in hierarchical models of psychopathology can help account for additional variance and help to clarify the relationship between disorder constructs and NA.     

The Social Correlates to Callous-Unemotional Traits in a Sample of High School Students

Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are strongly related to early-onset and severe levels of conduct problems. However, much less research has focused on their association with potential problems in adolescents’ social relationships. Further, it is important to determine if CU traits explain variance in important social variables, independent of conduct problems or general personality dimensions related to sociability, like agreeableness. In the current study, we examined the association of CU traits with a range of social variables in a community sample of Italian adolescents (N = 563; 460 girls; mean age = 15.80, SD = 1.50). Measures for the social variables included assessment of peer rejection, adolescents’ prosocial behaviors, satisfaction in peer relationships, and feelings of connection with school and classmates. We also obtained self-report ratings of CU traits, conduct problems (CP) and agreeableness. Analyses showed that CU traits were significantly associated with all the social variables. After controlling for CP and agreeableness, CU traits were still positively associated with ratings of peer rejection and negatively associated with prosocial behavior and satisfaction in relationships with peers. However, the negative associations with feelings of connection to school and peers were no longer significant. These findings provide further support for the clinical usefulness of CU traits and further evidence for potential targets of intervention, particularly focused on the adolescent’s relational skills.     

Rééducation des compétences socio-émotionnelles pour des adultes présentant une déficience intellectuelle

IntroductionThe aim of the present study was to improve socio-emotional skills in adults with intellectual disability (ID) in order to remediate their social behavior difficulties.MethodThe socio-emotional skills reeducation program (Barisnikov, 2007) was proposed to 17 ID adults. Participants’ socio-emotional skills were assessed in pre- and post-reeducation period using tasks from the “Socio-Cognitive and Emotional Battery” (Barisnikov & Hippolyte, 2011).ResultsPost-reeducation assessment showed that the performance of participants was significantly improved on both “Emotion Attribution Task” and “Social Resolution task”. The significant reduction in their behavioral problems was also observed. These results demonstrated that the improvements were not limited to participants’ socio-emotional processing abilities but were also generalized to their daily functioning.ConclusionThe program provides an interesting tool to improve socio-emotional processing abilities and social behavior in adults with ID.     

Cultural evidence for interpretation bias as a feature of social anxiety in Chinese adolescents

Background and Objectives: Interpretation bias (IB), defined as the tendency to interpret ambiguous social situations in a threatening manner, has increasingly been studied in children and adolescents. Compared to Western samples, the relation between IB and social anxiety in Chinese youth has received little attention. The present study was to mainly examine the relationship between IB and social anxiety among Chinese adolescents.

Design: Cross-sectional design was utilized.

Methods: IB, measured by the Adolescents’ Interpretation Bias Questionnaire (AIBQ), and social anxiety were surveyed among a group of high socially anxious Chinese adolescents (n?=?25) and a control group (n?=?29). Participants were asked to rate the likelihood of interpretations coming to mind in social/non-social situations and to choose the most believable interpretation.

Results: The high social anxiety group had more negative interpretations and beliefs in social situations, and the interpretation bias was particular to social anxiety versus depression. Additionally, the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis was supported; the high anxious group showed interpretation bias in social situations, but didn’t have more negative interpretations of non-social situations, after controlling for depression.

Conclusions: The present study yielded comparable findings as found in Western samples regarding the relation between IB and social anxiety.     

Developing Transdiagnostic Internalizing Disorder Prognostic Indices for Outpatient Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

A growing literature is devoted to understanding and predicting heterogeneity in response to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), including using supervised machine learning to develop prognostic models that could be used to inform treatment planning. The current study developed CBT prognostic models using data from a broad dimensionally oriented pretreatment assessment (324 predictors) of 1,210 outpatients with internalizing psychopathology. Super learning was implemented to develop prognostic indices for three outcomes assessed at 12-month follow-up: principal diagnosis improvement (attained by 65.8% of patients), principal diagnosis remission (56.8%), and transdiagnostic full remission (14.3%). The models for principal diagnosis remission and transdiagnostic remission performed best (AUROCs = 0.71–0.73). Calibration was modest for all three models. Three-quarters (77.3%) of patients in the top tertile of the predicted probability distribution achieved principal diagnosis remission, compared to 35.0% in the bottom tertile. One-third (35.3%) of patients in the top two deciles of predicted probabilities for transdiagnostic complete remission achieved this outcome, compared to 2.7% in the bottom tertile. Key predictors included principal diagnosis severity, social anxiety diagnosis/severity, hopelessness, temperament, and global impairment. While additional work is needed to improve performance, integration of CBT prognostic models ultimately could lead to more effective and efficient treatment of patients with internalizing psychopathology.     

Effect of Daily Life Reward Loop Functioning on the Course of Depression

Engagement in activities increases positive affect (Reward Path 1), which subsequently reinforces motivation (Reward Path 2), and hence future engagement in activities (Reward Path 3). Strong connections between these three reward loop components are considered adaptive, and might be disturbed in depression. Although some ecological nomentary assessment (EMA) studies have investigated the cross-sectional association between separate reward paths and individuals’ level of depression, no EMA study has looked into the association between individuals’ reward loop strength and depressive symptom course. The present EMA study assessed reward loop functioning (5x/day, 28 days) of 46 outpatients starting depression treatment at secondary mental health services and monitored with the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology—Self-Report (IDS-SR) during a 7-month period. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed significant within-person associations for Reward Path 1 (b = 0.21, p < .001), Reward Path 2 (b = 0.43, p < .001), and Reward Path 3 (b = 0.20, p < .001). Stronger average reward loops (i.e., within-person mean of all reward paths) did not relate to participants’ improvement in depressive symptoms over time. Path-specific results revealed that Reward Paths 1 and 2 may have partly opposite effects on depressive symptom course. Together, our findings suggest that reward processes in daily life might be best studied separately and that further investigation is warranted to explore under what circumstances strong paths are adaptive or not.     

The Origins of Social Citizenship in Pre-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

South Africa's 1996 Constitution promises a measure of ‘social citizenship’ alongside formal political and legal equality. South Africa's public welfare and social policies may be less effective in ensuring social citizenship, through reducing insecurity and inequality, than those of the more established democracies, but they are far more effective than those of other ‘developing’ countries. The origins of social citizenship in South Africa lie in the early and mid-1940s, when the state first assumed responsibility for the welfare, broadly understood, of all South Africans. The most significant achievement was the introduction of a universal old-age pension system. The importance of these initiatives has been largely overlooked. This has been in part because later scholars largely ignored the heterogeneity of liberal thought in South Africa in the mid-twentieth century, as followers of the ‘New Liberalism’ broke with the classical liberalism of John Stuart Mill and argued for a range of state interventions in social and economic life. In South Africa, as elsewhere, the Second World War provided a context in which revised liberal thought gave rise to major policy reforms, some of which were to survive even the election of a National Party government in 1948.     

Exploring parent-athlete sport related communication outside of the sport environment with the Electronically Activated Recorder

ObjectivesThe purpose of the current study was to explore parent-athlete sport-related conversations as they naturally occurred in the private contexts that surround youth sport. A secondary aim was to understand whether male and female guardians communicate differently in sport, and whether these differences are shaped by the contexts in which they appear.DesignWe used the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) to gather snippets of parents' and athletes' daily social interactions in the contexts that surround youth sport. A total of 220 audio files were gathered in the car ride to and from competition, the ice hockey arena, and at their home base (i.e., family residence of local teams and hotels for out-of-town teams) over the course of a 3-day competitive ice hockey tournament. Conversations were inductively coded using reflexive thematic analysis through a critical realist lens.ResultsHigher order themes included (a) performance-related dialogue; (b) the opportunity to discuss other social agents, and (c) parental social support. Frequency analysis revealed more instances of negative evaluations and technical instruction from fathers, whereas positive encouragement was more prominent from mothers.ConclusionThese findings present novel insight into the nature of parent-athlete interactions outside of the immediate sport-competition environment. We encourage scholars to consider the EAR for future investigation of the youth sport environment.     

Distress tolerance as a mechanism of mindfulness for depression and anxiety: Cross-sectional and diary evidence

BackgroundBoth trait and state mindfulness are associated with less depression and anxiety, but the mechanisms remain unknown. Distress tolerance, an important transdiagnostic factor of emotional disorders, may mediate the relationship between mindfulness and depression/anxiety.MethodStudy 1 examined the mediation model at the between-person level in a large cross-sectional sample (n = 905). In Study 2, a daily diary study (n = 110) was conducted to examine within-person changes. Participants were invited to complete daily diaries measuring daily mindfulness, distress tolerance, depression and anxiety for 14 consecutive days.ResultsIn Study 1, results of simple mediation analyses indicated that distress tolerance mediated the relationship between mindfulness and depression/anxiety at the between-person level. In Study 2, results of multilevel mediation analyses indicated that, in both the concurrent model and time-lagged model, daily distress tolerance mediated the effects of daily mindfulness on daily depression/anxiety at both the within- and between-person level.ConclusionsDistress tolerance is a mechanism underlying the relationship between mindfulness and depression/anxiety. Individuals with high or fluctuating depression and anxiety may benefit from short-term or long-term mindfulness training to increase distress tolerance.     

The role of repetitive thought in determining posttraumatic growth and distress following interpersonal trauma

Background and Objectives: Repetitive thought (RT) strategies have been linked to a range of negative outcomes following traumatic interpersonal events but are proposed to serve an adaptive function under particular circumstances. This study examined outcomes following RT within a transdiagnostic framework, and explored the potentially adaptive nature of trait-like and event-related RT. Design: The centrality of a traumatic event to one's identity was explored as a context under which the adaptive nature of RT might change. Young adults with interpersonal violence experiences (N = 163) reported use of trait-like and event-related RT, centrality of the event, depressive, anxious, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), posttraumatic depreciation and posttraumatic growth. Methods: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine main and moderating effects of four types of RT and event centrality on outcome variables. Results: Centrality positively predicted depressive symptoms and PTSS, depreciation, and growth. Brooding RT positively predicted all negative outcomes. Reflecting RT positively predicted anxious symptoms and PTSS and depreciation. Only deliberate RT positively predicted growth. Centrality did not moderate any examined relationships. Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of addressing specific types of RT in interventions with survivors and of considering centrality as a robust contributor to outcomes following interpersonal violence.