UC Irvine

Affective experience abnormalities represent a key area of dysfunction in individuals with, or at risk for, schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and severely limit broad domains of functioning in these populations. Nevertheless, much remains unknown about the nature of these abnormalities. Recent advances in the affective science literature suggests that conceptualizing affective processes as a dynamic system may provide valuable insights on affective experience abnormalities associated with schizophrenia-spectrum pathology. Like all natural systems, the system of affective processes involves ever-changing components in response to the ebb and flow of contextual inputs at micro-level (i.e., emotional state), meso-level (i.e., mood), and macro-level (i.e., affective trait) timescales. System variability at every timescale is bound by various stabilizing and destabilizing processes that may bring forth critical phase transitions from one steady state to a contrasting one. Adopting a dynamic systems perspective, the current dissertation undertook a comprehensive investigation of affective experience abnormalities in schizophrenia-spectrum risk in a series of four studies. Chapter 1 offers a systematic review and meta-analysis of the trait and state affective experiences across the full spectrum of high-risk conditions. Findings reveal that high-risk individuals display robust negative affect elevations and nuanced positive affect reductions across trait and state. Trait-level abnormalities were more pronounced compared to state-level abnormalities, thereby demonstrating a trait-state disjunction in high-risk individuals similar to that of individuals with schizophrenia. Chapter 2 offers a three-study empirical examination of the dynamical patterns of affective experiences as they relate to schizophrenia-spectrum risk across varying timescales and contexts. Findings reveal that positive symptoms (e.g., perceptual aberration and magical ideation) and negative symptoms (e.g., social anhedonia) of the schizophrenia spectrum are signified by distinct alterations in affect dynamics. Whereas positive symptoms are linked to heightened magnitude and frequency of affective fluctuations in response to emotional materials, negative symptoms are characterized by heightened persistence of baseline states. Collectively, the current dissertation provides compelling evidence that affective experience abnormalities are vulnerability markers for schizophrenia-spectrum pathology and highlights the critical need to take into account the facet of time when examining affective experiences. Findings are situated within the broader empirical literature and theoretical perspectives of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders to aid in the development of a unifying framework of psychosis. Important next steps on psychosis risk prediction and prevention are discussed.