Marie Dethier

Capacity for cognitive and emotional empathy in alcohol-dependent patients.

This study assessed two previously unexplored facets of empathy in alcohol-dependent patients (ADs) divided into two groups according to Cloningers alcoholism typology: the attribution of intentions according to emotional facial expressions (EFEs) and emotional contagion in reaction to EFEs. Twenty-three male Type-I ADs, 21 male Type-II ADs, and 24 male control participants were compared in two computerized tasks. First, participants rated the extent to which an adjective descriptive of personality weighted on interpersonal dimensions (of rejection, aggressiveness, dominance, and affiliation) corresponded with a video of a neutral EFE that changed to an intense EFE. Second, participants evaluated their own emotional states after watching a series of videos that depicted EFEs while their own face was being filmed. The results showed that Type-I ADs attributed more rejection intentions and fewer affiliation intentions to EFEs compared with controls; however, depression might better explain this biased attribution. Furthermore, AD subtypes showed a different pattern of intention attribution according to the emotions that were portrayed and the sex of the stimulus. In addition, angry EFE mimicry was stronger in Type-II ADs than other participants. Finally, ADs expressed fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions than controls when watching EFEs. These findings emphasize the importance of differentiating alcoholism subtypes and contribute to the understanding of AD interpersonal behaviors.

Marital Satisfaction in Couples with an Alcoholic Husband

Both members of 15 heterosexual couples with an alcoholic husband (AC) and of 15 matched couples with healthy members (HC) filled out first, the Marital Adjustment Test (Locke, Wallace Marriage and Family Living 21:251–255, 1959), second, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith 1967), and finally, a questionnaire on emotional feeling state in which the participant had to evaluate his or her own emotions and the emotions experienced by his or her partner. Results showed that both AC members reported lower marital satisfaction and a lower level of self-esteem than HC members. Furthermore, they were less congruent with their partner regarding the evaluation of their partner’s emotional feeling states (EFS). These deficits could have repercussions on marital happiness, which itself would have repercussions on the alcoholic’s treatment.

Identity in schizophrenia: A study of trait self-knowledge

Identity results from interlock of two systems which are a set of abstracted representations about oneself and a phenomenological self. Literature highlights identity disturbance in schizophrenia that affects each of both systems. In the same vein, the present study investigates the stability and the quality of traits self-knowledge, a component of abstracted representations of self, in schizophrenia patients. Sixty-eight patients with schizophrenia and 68 healthy control subjects completed a short version of a personality scale (LABEL). This scale is composed of two versions (A and B), each comprising 50 adjectives that correspond to synonymous adjectives in the alternate list. Participants indicated how these adjectives described themselves and completed both versions of the scale on two separate occasions, one month apart. The findings showed that schizophrenic patients presented an unstable identity and change in identity quality compared with healthy subjects. However, this identity disturbance was weaker than expected. These results are discussed in a part of autobiographical memory disturbances in schizophrenia, illness duration and the decompensation stage.

Emotional regulation impairments following severe traumatic brain injury: an investigation of the body and facial feedback effects

The object of this study was to evaluate the combined effect of body and facial feedback in adults who had suffered from a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) to gain some understanding of their difficulties in the regulation of negative emotions. Twenty-four participants with TBI and 28 control participants adopted facial expressions and body postures according to specific instructions and maintained these positions for 10 s. Expressions and postures entailed anger, sadness, and happiness as well as a neutral (baseline) condition. After each expression/posture manipulation, participants evaluated their subjective emotional state (including cheerfulness, sadness, and irritation). TBI participants were globally less responsive to the effects of body and facial feedback than control participants, F(1,50) = 5.89, p = .02, η(2) = .11. More interestingly, the TBI group differed from the Control group across emotions, F(8,400) = 2.51, p = .01, η(2) = .05. Specifically, participants with TBI were responsive to happy but not to negative expression/posture manipulations whereas control participants were responsive to happy, angry, and sad expression/posture manipulations. In conclusion, TBI appears to impair the ability to recognize both the physical configuration of a negative emotion and its associated subjective feeling.

Emotion recognition depends on subjective emotional experience and not on facial expressivity: evidence from traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT Background: Recognizing how others feel is paramount to social situations and commonly disrupted following traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study tested whether problems identifying emotion in others following TBI is related to problems expressing or feeling emotion in oneself, as theoretical models place emotion perception in the context of accurate encoding and/or shared emotional experiences. Methods: Individuals with TBI (n = 27; 20 males) and controls (n = 28; 16 males) were tested on an emotion recognition task, and asked to adopt facial expressions and relay emotional memories according to the presentation of stimuli (word and photos). After each trial, participants were asked to self-report their feelings of happiness, anger and sadness. Judges that were blind to the presentation of stimuli assessed emotional facial expressivity. Results: Emotional experience was a unique predictor of affect recognition across all emotions while facial expressivity did not contribute to any of the regression models. Furthermore, difficulties in recognizing emotion for individuals with TBI were no longer evident after cognitive ability and experience of emotion were entered into the analyses. Conclusions: Emotion perceptual difficulties following TBI may stem from an inability to experience affective states and may tie in with alexythymia in clinical conditions.