Social disinterest and interpersonal dynamics in schizophrenia • DFG project
DFG-funded project RI 3375 1-1
Asociality as a consequence of expressive negative symptoms in schizophrenia: A laboratory-based dyadic interaction study with subsequent ecological momentary assessment.
PI: Dr. Marcel Riehle
Collab. PI: Prof. Tania M. Lincoln
PhD-Student: M. Sc. Hannah Allmandinger
Background: Asociality (i.e., low social motivation) and social withdrawal are important characteristics of the negative symptoms in schizophrenia and closely associated with low functioning levels. However, these symptoms cannot be managed sufficiently well with existing treatment approaches so that it seems important to gain a better understanding of their maintenance mechanisms. Another characteristic negative symptom of schizophrenia, diminished emotional expression (i.e., expressive negative symptoms, ENS), could play an important role in the maintenance of asociality. Expressive negative symptoms are defined as diminished use of several aspects of nonverbal behavior (i.e., diminished expression via facial expressions, coverbal gestures, speech intonation, and number of spoken words). These symptoms therefore manifest in social interactions. Under the assumption that showing these nonverbal behaviors is normatively supportive of successful social interaction, the reduction of these behaviors in expressive negative symptoms should impede social interactions. More specifically, people experiencing these symptoms are often seen by others as aloof and uninterested in social communication. A likely consequence then is that others distance themselves from the person experiencing expressive negative symptoms (or others do not wish to establish a close relationship with them in the first place). There is evidence suggesting that negative expectations about social interactions and the possible response of interaction partners are in part responsible for the diminished nonverbal behavior in expressive negative symptoms. However, as laid out above, expressive negative symptoms indeed are likely to produce negative responses in interaction partners. Accordingly, there may be two interconnected vicious cycles that maintain asociality. An intrapersonal cycle, whereby pessimistic beliefs about one’s own abilities to connect socially and expectations about being rejected (or not accepted) by others, lead to low social motivation and subsequent social withdrawal. The social withdrawal then prevents making positive social experiences that could counter the own narrative. The second cycle is an interpersonal cycle, whereby asociality promotes expressive negative symptoms that manifest in social interactions that the person actually engages in. These symptoms then lead to the actual negative responses (most likely the absence of positive responses) in others, as described above. Making such experiences has been shown to lead to short-term losses of social motivation. Moreover, making such experiences reconfirms potentially existing negative beliefs about one’s own abilities to connect socially and expectations about being rejected (or not accepted) by others (i.e., the intrapersonal cycle). This theoretic framework has still to be investigated in its entirety and therefore has hypothetical character at the moment. With our project, we aim to test several important parts of this framework.
Our research: So far, two laboratory-based interaction studies (Riehle & Lincoln, 2018; Riehle et al., 2018) have shown that diminished smiling in dyadic interactions predicts a higher likelihood that people with schizophrenia are rejected by their interaction partners. In this project, these two previous studies will be replicated with an improved design. Additionally, the project will include a first investigation of the degree to which the negative consequences of diminished smiling affect the daily life of people with schizophrenia and whether this mechanism promotes the proposed vicious cycle of expected and actual rejection, asociality, and social withdrawal.
In this project we combine laboratory-based social interaction behavioral observation with ecological momentary assessment. More specifically, the project first involves a laboratory-based objective (i.e., via Electromyography) assessment of the smiling behavior of people with schizophrenia with high expressive negative symptoms (high ENS SZ), people with schizophrenia with low expressive negative symptoms (low ENS SZ), and healthy control participants (HC) while engaging in a dyadic interaction with a healthy interaction partner (One-With-Many-Design). The interaction partners rate their willingness for future interactions with high/low ENS SZ and HC. Subsequently, high/low ENS SZ and HC will participate in a 7-day ecological momentary assessment during which momentary levels of social motivation, social activity, and felt and expected social exclusion are assessed at 8 time-points per day via smartphone. These parameters will then be associated with the laboratory-based interaction parameters and can be used to test for the presence of the postulated vicious cycle. The insights generated by the planned project can contribute to the development of novel treatment approaches for asociality. For example, such approaches could directly address the emotional expression of patients and engage with people in patients’ immediate social networks.
This project has started in May 2023. The pre-registration of the study is currently in preparation and we anticipate starting the data collection in August 2023.
Information for people interested in participation
If you are interested in participating in the study, please find detailed information on our flyer.
Relevant project publications
Riehle, M., Kempkensteffen, J., & Lincoln, T. M. (2017). Quantifying Facial Expression Synchrony in Face-To-Face Dyadic Interactions: Temporal Dynamics of Simultaneously Recorded Facial EMG Signals. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 41(2), 85–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-016-0246-8
Riehle, M., & Lincoln, T. M. (2017). Social consequences of subclinical negative symptoms: An EMG study of facial expressions within a social interaction. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 55, 90–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.01.003
Riehle, M., & Lincoln, T. M. (2018). Investigating the social costs of schizophrenia: Facial expressions in dyadic interactions of people with and without schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 127(2), 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000319
Jaya, E. S., Pillny, M., Lincoln, T. M., & Riehle, M. (2022). Does social defeat cause negative symptoms? A prospective study in a multi-national community sample. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2021.152289
Riehle, M., Mehl, S., & Lincoln, T. M. (2018). The specific social costs of expressive negative symptoms in schizophrenia: reduced smiling predicts interactional outcome. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 138(2), 133–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12892