Emotion Recognition in At Risk Mental States
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Emotion Recognition and Social Functioning in Young Adults in an At Risk Mental State
IRAS ID
229989
Contact name
Paul J Kennedy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
How we interpret a person’s emotional state affects the way in which we interact in our social world. Previous research has found that individuals in an At Risk Mental State (ARMS) of developing psychosis differ from a non-clinical group in their ability to identify emotions in others facial expressions. In addition, a change in social functioning (eg. engaging with friends and family, hobbies, work etc.) is a common indicator of mental health difficulties and forms part of the criteria for identifying an indivdual as UHR for developing psychosis. However, it is unclear at present if a difference in the ability to interpret others facial emotional expressions is related to social functioning in ARMS individuals.
As such, this study will explore if a group of young adults (aged 18-25 years) who are in an At Risk Mental State interpret facial emotion expressions differently than a non-clinical group, and if this is related to social functioning. It is hoped that the findings of this study may help us to develop better psychological treatments to improve social functioning for individuals at risk of developing psychosis.
Participants will complete a facial emotion recognition task on a computer and three questionnaires. The facial emotion recognition task will give a score of how accurate the participant is at accurately idenifying emotions shown by a series of faces presented on the computer screen. The questionnaires will measure the participants level of social functioning (e.g. time spent doing various activities such as work, university, hobbies, time with friends and family), psychotic-like experiences (currently), mood, and demographic information (gender, age and ethnicity).
The clinical group will consist of 34 participants to be recruited from a secondary mental health service. The non-clinical group consists of 34 participants who have previously been recruited from Univerity of East Anglia.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SW/0064
Date of REC Opinion
28 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion