Thomas R. Kwapil

Social anhedonia as a predictor of the development of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

College undergraduates (n = 34) identified by deviant scores (at least 1.96 SD above the mean) on the Revised Social Anhedonia (SocAnh) Scale (M. Eckblad, L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. Mishlove, 1982) were compared with control participants (n = 139) at an initial assessment and at a 10-year follow-up evaluation. Twenty-four percent of the SocAnh group were diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders at the follow-up compared with only 1% of the control group, despite the fact that there had been no such difference between the groups at the initial assessment 10 years earlier. The SocAnh group exceeded the control group on severity of psychotic-like experiences and had poorer overall adjustment at the follow-up but not at the initial assessment. The groups did not differ on mood symptoms or substance-use disorders. Thus, the SocAnh Scale, unlike the Perceptual Aberration and Magical Ideation Scales, appears to identify individuals at specific risk for future development of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

A Longitudinal Study of High Scorers on the Hypomanic Personality Scale

Former college students (n = 36) identified by high scores on the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HYP; Eckblad & Chapman, 1986) were compared with control participants (n = 31) at a 13-year follow-up assessment. As hypothesized, the HYP group reported more bipolar disorders and major depressive episodes than the control group. The HYP group also exceeded the control group on the severity of psychotic-like experiences, symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and rates of substance use disorders. HYP group members with elevated scores on the Impulsive-Nonconformity Scale (Chapman et al., 1984) experienced greater rates of bipolar mood disorders, poorer overall adjustment, and higher rates of arrest than the remaining HYP or control participants.

Magical Ideation and Social Anhedonia as Predictors of Psychosis Proneness: A Partial Replication

The authors compared college students identified by high scores on the Magical Ideation Scale (M. Eckblad & L. J. Chapman, 1983) and the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (MagSoc; n = 28; M. Eckblad, L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. Mishlove, 1982) with control participants (n = 20) at a 10-year follow-up assessment in an attempt to replicate L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, T. R. Kwapil, M. Eckblad, and M. C. Zinsers (1994) report of heightened psychosis proneness in MagSoc individuals. The MagSoc group exceeded the control group on severity of psychotic-like experiences; ratings of schizotypal, paranoid, and borderline personality disorder symptoms; and rates of mood and substance use disorders. Two of the MagSoc participants but none of the control participants developed psychosis during the follow-up period (a nonsignificant difference). Consistent with L. J. Chapman et al.s findings, the groups did not differ on rates of personality disorders or relatives with psychosis.

Facilitation of word recognition by semantic priming in schizophrenia

Schizophrenic (n = 21), bipolar (n = 18), and normal control subjects (n = 21) were compared on a word recognition measure of semantic priming. The task involved the presentation of related, neutral, and unrelated word pairs; the second word (target word) in each pair was presented in a degraded form. Facilitation was defined as the accuracy of target word recognition for the related word pairs minus accuracy for the neutral word pairs. Titration, achieved by manipulating the degradation of the target word, was used to maintain each subjects overall accuracy for related and neutral items at approximately 50%. This procedure minimized the artifactual effects of overall accuracy on the difference score. Schizophrenics exceeded both normal control subjects and bipolar subjects on facilitation. Bipolar subjects did not differ from control subjects. The results support Mahers hypothesis that semantic priming effects are heightened in schizophrenia.

Anxiety and depression symptoms in psychometrically identified schizotypy.

The neurodevelopmental vulnerability for schizophrenia appears to be expressed across a dynamic continuum of adjustment referred to as schizotypy. This model suggests that nonpsychotic schizotypic individuals should exhibit mild and transient forms of symptoms seen in full-blown schizophrenia. Given that depression and anxiety are reported to be comorbid with schizophrenia, the present study examined the relationship of psychometrically defined schizotypy with symptoms of depression and anxiety in a college student sample (n=1258). A series of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a three-factor solution of positive schizotypy, negative schizotypy, and negative affect provided the best solution for self-report measures of schizotypy, anxiety, and depression. As hypothesized, the model indicated that symptoms of depression and anxiety are more strongly associated with the positive-symptom dimension of schizotypy than with the negative-symptom dimension. This is consistent with studies of schizophrenic patients and longitudinal findings that positive-symptom schizotypes are at risk for both mood and non-mood psychotic disorders, while negative-symptom schizotypes appear more specifically at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Tracking the train of thought from the laboratory into everyday life: An experience-sampling study of mind wandering across controlled and ecological contexts

In an experience-sampling study that bridged laboratory, ecological, and individual-differences approaches to mind-wandering research, 72 subjects completed an executive-control task with periodic thought probes (reported by McVay & Kane, 2009) and then carried PDAs for a week that signaled them eight times daily to report immediately whether their thoughts were off task. Subjects who reported more mind wandering during the laboratory task endorsed more mind-wandering experiences during everyday life (and were more likely to report worries as off-task thought content). We also conceptually replicated laboratory findings that mind wandering predicts task performance: Subjects rated their daily-life performance to be impaired when they reported off-task thoughts, with greatest impairment when subjects’ mind wandering lacked metaconsciousness. The propensity to mind wander appears to be a stable cognitive characteristic and seems to predict performance difficulties in daily life, just as it does in the laboratory

When the Need to Belong Goes Wrong The Expression of Social Anhedonia and Social Anxiety in Daily Life

People possess an innate need to belong that drives social interactions. Aberrations in the need to belong, such as social anhedonia and social anxiety, provide a point of entry for examining this need. The current study used experience-sampling methodology to explore deviations in the need to belong in the daily lives of 245 undergraduates. Eight times daily for a week, personal digital assistants signaled subjects to complete questionnaires regarding affect, thoughts, and behaviors. As predicted, higher levels of social anhedonia were associated with increased time alone, greater preference for solitude, and lower positive affect. Higher social anxiety, in contrast, was associated with higher negative affect and was not associated with increased time alone. Furthermore, greater social anxiety was associated with greater self-consciousness and preference to be alone while interacting with unfamiliar people. Thus, deviations in the need to belong affect social functioning differently depending on whether this need is absent or thwarted.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test deficits in schizotypic individuals.

The present study investigates executive functioning in schizotypic college students and control subjects using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Inhibitory control and working memory, two aspects of executive functioning, were examined in deviantly high scorers on the Perceptual Aberration and Magical Ideation Scales (n=97), high scorers on the revised Social Anhedonia Scale (n=58), and in control subjects (n=104). The schizotypic groups displayed significantly more perseverative errors and achieved fewer categories than the control group. The two schizotypic groups did not differ from each other. We identified a subset of schizotypic individuals who also produced clinically deviant WCST profiles. The findings support the hypothesis that executive function deficits may precede the onset of schizophrenia and related illnesses.

Schizophrenic-like neurocognitive deficits in children and adolescents with 22q11 deletion syndrome

22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) is the most common genetic microdeletion syndrome affecting humans. The syndrome is associated with general cognitive impairments and specific deficits in visual‐spatial ability, non‐verbal reasoning, and planning skills. 22q11DS is also associated with behavioral and psychiatric abnormalities, including a markedly elevated risk for schizophrenia. Research findings indicate that people with schizophrenia, as well as those identified as schizoptypic, show specific cognitive deficits in the areas of sustained attention, executive functioning, and verbal working memory. The present study examined such schizophrenic‐like cognitive deficits in children and adolescents with 22q11DS (n = 26) and controls (n = 25) using a cross‐sectional design. As hypothesized, 22q11DS participants exhibited deficits in intelligence, achievement, sustained attention, executive functioning, and verbal working memory compared to controls. Furthermore, deficits in attention and executive functioning were more pronounced in the 22q11DS sample relative to general cognitive impairment. These findings suggest that the same pattern of neuropsychological impairment seen in patients with schizophrenia is present in non‐psychotic children identified as at‐risk for the development of schizophrenia based on a known genetic risk marker.

The Role of Schizotypy in the Study of the Etiology of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

Schizotypy provides a useful construct for understanding the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. As research on the epidemiology of psychotic symptoms and clinical risk for psychosis has expanded, conceptual challenges have emerged to comprehend the nature and borders of the space comprised between personality variation and psychosis. Schizotypy is considered in light of these more recent constructs. It is suggested that rather than being superseded by them due to their higher specificity and predictive power for transition to psychosis, schizotypy integrates them as it constitutes a dynamic continuum ranging from personality to psychosis. The advantages of schizotypy for studying schizophrenia etiology are discussed (eg, it facilitates a developmental approach and the identification of causal, resilience, and compensating factors and offers a multidimensional structure that captures etiological heterogeneity). An overview of putative genetic, biological, and psychosocial risk factors is presented, focusing on communalities and differences between schizotypy and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The found notable overlap supports etiological continuity, and, simultaneously, differential findings appear that are critical to understanding resilience to schizophrenia. For example, discrepant findings in genetic studies might be interpreted as suggestive of sets of independent genetic factors playing a differential role in schizotypy and schizophrenia: some would influence variation specifically on schizotypy dimensions (ie, high vs low schizotypy, thereby increasing proneness to psychosis), some would confer unspecific liability to disease by impacting neural properties and susceptibility to environmental factors (ie, high vs low resilience to disorder) and some might contribute to disease–specific characteristics. Finally, schizotypy’s promise for studying gene-environment interactions is considered.