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A Transdiagnostic Understanding of Paranoia
Paranoia and a host of overlapping constructs (suspiciousness, mistrust, etc.) are related to many traditional psychiatric diagnoses (schizophrenia, paranoid personality disorder, PTSD, etc.), often as diagnostic criteria. These traits and symptoms entail perceiving that others are untrustworthy, unfairly treating oneself, or mean one harm (social or physical), sometimes to an extent that causes considerable social impairment. Considerable effort has been made to understand the mechanisms underlying paranoia; however, this research rarely considers paranoia as a potentially transdiagnostic phenomenon. In essence, it is unclear whether paranoia is truly one thing, many separate things, or perhaps one thing with many unique manifestations. TIPL is beginning a series of studies that aims to map the universe of constructs related to paranoia (mistrust, social anxiety, hypervigilance, etc.) and develop an understanding of how these constructs map onto transdiagnostic models of psychopathology (e.g., HiTOP) and relevant mechanistic models of paranoia (e.g., computational models).
Dyadic Social-Cognitive Processes in Psychopathology
Research on psychosis and personality disorders, as well as many other literatures, is limited by the fact that theories of social dysfunction poorly integrate cognitive processes and interpersonal behavior. Using recent advances in eye-tracking technology, it is now possible to examine processes such as pupillary synchrony and eye-gaze synchrony with greater ease and higher accuracy (Wohltjen & Wheatley, 2024). Drawing upon Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory, eye-tracking research, and the conversational analysis literature, TIPL is examining how symptoms and traits may influence the coordination of social attention, nonverbal behavior, and speech. Data collection is ongoing and integrates data from questionnaires, interviews, and behavioral tasks, alongside pupillometry, gaze metrics, facial affect, vocal affect, and other conversational indicators. NIMH funding for this data collection is pending.
Social Cognition Battery for Psychosis Risk: A Psychometric and Validation Study
TIPL is collaborating with other labs to improve and validate assessments that are appropriate for measuring social cognition in individuals who are at clinical high risk for developing psychosis. Measuring social cognition is challenging and many tasks designed for this purpose have not been thoroughly evaluated. It is further unclear whether tasks developed for specific populations (e.g., schizophrenia, autism spectra) are reliable and valid for understanding individuals who are at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P), who tend to be young adults, experience considerable social change, and have less severe symptoms. The project is funded by NIMH (NIMH-R01MH136185; PIs: Drs. Pinkham & Mittal; Co-Is: Drs. Williams & Ackerman).
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