In this study, we leverage computational psychiatry to examine weighting of perceptual priors and reinforcement learning (RL) as potential pathways connecting environmental stressors to psychosis risk. Five hundred and six participants with psychosis-like experiences (PLEs) and 328 control subjects performed behavioral tasks measuring these mechanisms in addition to symptom assessments. Participants’ childhood-area social fragmentation and childhood opportunities were also extracted. The association between environmental, computational, and clinical measures was assessed, as were mediation pathways. Higher social fragmentation was associated with deficits in RL, r (410) = .19, p < .001, and lower opportunities were associated with overweighting perceptual priors, r (290) = −.16, p = .02, and issues in RL, r (307) = −.14, p = .02, for PLE participants. Fewer available childhood opportunities were also related to greater positive symptom severity, r (354) = −.14, p = .03. We found a potential pathway connecting available childhood opportunities to positive symptoms through the mediating effect of overweighting perceptual priors (average causal mediation effect = −4.91, p = .04). Environmental characteristics could shape symptom severity through computational mechanisms.
Using a large, representative sample ( N = 1,035), this study examined trajectories of psychological distress during the first 6 months following the October 7th terrorist attack. Four adjustment patterns were identified: resilience (54.5%), recovery (29.1%), chronic distress (13.9%), and delayed onset (2.5%). Trajectory membership significantly predicted posttraumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) symptoms beyond final distress levels, highlighting the value of a longitudinal perspective. Key predictors of more adaptive trajectories included demographic factors (e.g., male gender, older age), level of exposure to the events of the war, world beliefs (e.g., perceiving the world as safe), and early positive emotions. Empathic distress and empathic concern were associated with distress levels, elevated PTSD symptoms, and more severe trajectories, although empathic concern also related to social support and volunteering. Social support and wartime volunteering were not associated with distress or trajectory membership. Findings highlight the value of ecological and longitudinal approaches to understanding adaptation during continuous mass trauma.
Understanding causal influences on depression symptoms is essential for improving depression treatment. We therefore examined the causal status of promising candidate risk factors (repetitive negative thinking, cognitive reactivity, experiential avoidance, low self-esteem, low meaning in life [MiL]). We analyzed cross-sectional data of 674 adults from the general population using causal network analysis. Results provided evidence for depression symptoms as a cause rather than effect. None of the candidate risk factors causally influenced depression symptoms, and depression indirectly connected to MiL through its causal effect on well-being. Our findings point to the idiosyncrasy of pathways leading to depression and the importance of distinguishing factors relevant for symptom development versus persistence. This distinction may also partly explain the (short-term) effectiveness of existing depression treatments. As a next step, it seems important to examine the causal role of promising risk factors (e.g., low MiL) in depression-symptom persistence next to symptom development.
Feeling “authentic” is typically seen as a positive psychological phenomenon. However, in disordered states, certain maladaptive behaviors might feel “true to oneself.” Across five studies, we tested whether people high in internalizing symptoms may feel more authentic when worrying. Studies 1 and 2 ( Ns = 349 and 225, respectively) were longitudinal and revealed that people high but not low in internalizing symptoms reported greater authenticity when worrying more about finances and COVID-19, respectively. In Study 3 ( N = 375), academic worry predicted authenticity for undergraduates high but not low in internalizing. Studies 4 and 5 (combined N = 1,158) were preregistered experiments. Participants high in depression reported greater authenticity when worrying rather than reframing a problem. These results challenge typical views of authenticity as uniformly associated with positive psychological processes and invite future research into whether authenticity plays a role in the persistence of maladaptive behaviors in depression and anxiety.
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and sleep disturbances often co-occur in adolescence. While research has begun to examine individual symptom–symptom associations, the structure of these relationships remains to be fully characterized. This study employed network analysis to examine the conditional cross-sectional associations between sleep disturbances and PLE symptoms in early adolescence using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study ( N = 4,748). Difficulties initiating sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, dissociative experiences, and hallucinations were central to the network. Daytime sleepiness and dissociation functioned as bridges between domains, highlighting their role in both the overall network structure and comorbidity. PLEs were more prevalent, t (3,997.8) = 8.16, p < .05, and more distressing, t (3,567.3) = 9.16, p < .05, in females, but the overall network structure did not significantly differ by sex ( p > .05). We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these relationships and suggest daytime somnolence and dissociative symptoms as potential targets for confirmatory analyses and development of future intervention studies in adolescence.
