How did that interaction make you feel? The relationship between quality of everyday social experiences and emotion in people with and without schizophrenia

Abstract

People with schizophrenia report positive emotion during social interactions in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies; however, few of these studies examine the qualities of social interactions (e.g., intimacy) that may affect emotion experience. In the current EMA study, people with (n = 20) and without schizophrenia (n = 15) answered questions about the quality of their social interactions, including their emotion experiences. We also explored the relationship between EMA-reported social experiences and trait loneliness, negative symptoms, and social functioning. People with and without schizophrenia did not differ in EMA-reported proportion of time spent with others, extent of involvement during social interactions, intimacy of interactions, or average number of social interactions. Both people with and without schizophrenia reported more positive than negative emotion during social experiences. However, people with schizophrenia reported more loneliness, more severe negative symptoms, and impaired social functioning compared to people without schizophrenia. Further, specific qualities of social interactions (intimacy of interaction, involvement during interaction) were related to happiness during interactions only in people without schizophrenia. These results suggest that while people with and without schizophrenia report similar rates of in-the-moment social emotion experiences, the impact of social interaction quality on emotion may differ between groups.

Telehealth Acceptability and Feasibility Among People Served in a Community Behavioral Health System During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…A subset of evidence has examined telepsychiatry for the management of serious mental illness, finding that most clients appreciate these services (6,(11)(12)(13)(14). Social isolation is a common problem among people with serious mental illness, sometimes compounded by paranoid ideation or negative symptoms (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). It is possible that being able to connect with mental health professionals without leaving the home or receiving visitors may offer some relief.…”

Could technology enable individuals with schizophrenia to access health care? The case of Ecuador

“…To help individuals with schizophrenia to cope with their daily challenges, several technological tools have been developed, including, for example, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which is a low-cost smartphone app that monitors a patient's social behavior, real-world functioning, emotions, experiences and affective forecasting and appraises this in relation to suicidal thoughts (Brenner and Ben-Zeev, 2014;Granholm et al, 2020;Mote et al, 2019). Monitoring emotions, for example, is relevant because the literature reveals that emotions motivate behaviors that foster and maintain bonds with others.…”

Dynamic contextual influences on social motivation and behavior in schizophrenia: a case-control network analysis

“…There is some evidence to suggest that contextual variation is important. While a review 9 and an EMA study 10 of SMI by the same group did not find significant differences between patients and healthy controls on time spent alone or involvement in interactions, the included studies did not fully examine who was interacting with the patient. We 8 found a double dissociation whereby controls reported significantly more reciprocal social interactions (e.g., with family, friends, coworkers), but significantly fewer instrumental or non-social interactions (e.g., with treatment providers, board-and-care staff) than patients with SMI, so the social and non-social instrumental interactions summed to a similar amount of total interactions for both groups.…”

“…In related EMA work on the context of being at home versus being outside of the home, people with schizophrenia experienced greater anxiety out of the home than healthy comparators, whereas healthy comparators experienced greater positive affect outside of the home 5 . As such, social motivation may depend upon where one is (home or away), who one is with, and variability in affective experiences across these different contexts 10 , 11 .…”