Decision-making and Mood
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Decision-making and Mood
IRAS ID
219341
Contact name
Maria Aurora Falcone
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 0 days
Research summary
The proposed research aims to examine, for the first time, the relationship between clinical symptoms which are part of grandiose presentations: high mood/mania, grandiose thinking, anger, and decision-making style, such as the Jumping to Conclusions bias in an inpatient sample. Mania, which includes grandiosity, is traditionally considered a psychiatric symptom and has mainly been studied from a psychiatric point of view. Studying mania and mania-related symptoms from a psychological perspective will help psychological understanding of this presentation. If clinically significant associations between high mood/mania, grandiose thinking, anger, and hasty decision-making style (like “Jumping to Conclusions”) are found, then it will be possible to put forward explanations for these associations and use this knowledge to develop new psychological interventions. This will have important implications for patients who suffer from these difficulties: an improved psychological understanding of these difficulties will hopefully lead to the development of new psychological therapies and therefore increase the range of treatments available for all patients who experience these symptoms. Participants in an inpatient unit would be eligible for the study. An inpatient group has been chosen to investigate these symptoms across a continuum of presentations (that is, from the most severe level of high mood/mania, grandiose thinking, anger, and hasty decision-making to the least severe) in a context where participants are readily accessible, and often looking for something interesting to occupy themselves. It is considered more likely that people with grandiose presentations will be identified and engage with the study in an inpatient, compared to community, setting.
The study involves the completion of measures at a single time point (unless the participant prefers otherwise) and will last approximated 50 minutes (10 minutes from the consent procedure and up to 40 minutes for the actual assessment). Measures will ask questions about mood, thinking-style, feelings of frustration, unusual experiences and decision-making style.
The study is a student research project and participant and administration costs are covered by King’s College London.REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0495
Date of REC Opinion
30 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion