A three-year longitudinal study of social anhedonia and comparison groups

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Martha Ann Diaz (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Thomas R. Kwapil

Abstract: " The present study is a three-year longitudinal reassessment of schizotypic young adults and comparison participants identified by the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (Eckblad, Chapman, Chapman, & Mishlove, 1982). Diaz, Dickerson, and Kwapil (2002) conducted a cross-sectional assessment of 78 Social Anhedonia and 68 comparison participants using a battery of interview, neurocognitive and questionnaire measures. They reported that the Social Anhedonia participants experienced elevated levels of positive and negative symptoms of schizotypy, impaired social functioning, and deficits in sustained attention and executive functioning, relative to comparison group. The present study reassessed 52 Social Anhedonia and 47 comparison participants. As hypothesized, the Social Anhedonia group continued to exhibit higher rates of schizotypic symptoms such as psychotic-like experiences, negative symptoms, and schizotypal, schizoid and paranoid symptoms, and poorer overall functioning at the three-year follow-up. A combination of interview, questionnaire and neurocognitive measures from the initial assessment incremented the prediction of schizotypic symptoms and spectrum disorders at the follow-up assessment. Furthermore, perceived stress, but not the number of significant life events, incremented the prediction of risk over-and-above the effects of social anhedonia. The results provide further support that the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale is a useful predictor of schizotypy and indicates that it is especially effective when used in conjunction with measures of clinical symptoms and neurocognition"--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2005
Keywords
schizotypic young adults, Revised Social Anhedonia Scale, interviews, questionaires, neurocognitive, social functioning, paranoid symptoms, schizotypy
Subjects
Anhedonia
Schizophrenia--Diagnosis
Psychology, Pathological--Diagnosis

Email this document to