AFFECTIVE SCIENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
WEEK 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO AFFECTIVE SCIENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY ........................... 4
EMOTION, EMOTION REGULATION, AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: AN AFFECTIVE SCIENCE
PERSPECTIVE................................................................................................................................ 4
DEFINING EMOTION AND EMOTION REGULATION ..................................................................................... 5
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTION AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY ................................................................. 6
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTION REGULATION AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY ................................................ 6
THREE IMPORTANT FACTORS IN EMOTION DYSREGULATION .................................................................................6
IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT ........................................................................ 7
ASSESSMENT ...............................................................................................................................................7
TREATMENT ................................................................................................................................................7
A HEURISTIC FOR DEVELOPING TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODELS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: EXPLAINING
MULTIFINALITY AND DIVERGENT TRAJECTORIES ........................................................................... 8
EXISTING TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODELS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES .................................................... 8
A HEURISTIC FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODELS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY .............................. 9
DISTAL AND PROXIMAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC RISK FACTORS ........................................................................... 9
DISTAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC FACTORS ................................................................................................................9
PROXIMAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC FACTORS .........................................................................................................10
THREE MECHANISMS LINKING DISTAL AND PROXIMAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC RISK FACTORS..........................................11
MODERATORS OF THE EFFECTS OF PROXIMAL RISK FACTORS ..............................................................................11
BRAIN DISORDERS? PRECISELY – PRECISION MEDICINE COMES TO PSYCHIATRY .......................... 12
WEEK 2 EMOTION CONTROL ................................................................................................... 13
MONTOYA ET AL.: TESTOSTERONE, CORTISOL, AND SEROTONIN AS KEY REGULATORS OF SOCIAL
AGGRESSION ............................................................................................................................. 15
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 16
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 17
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 17
ENTER, ROELOFS & SPINHOVEN: EFFECTS OF SINGLE DOSE TESTOSTERONE ADMINISTRATION ON
APPROACH–AVOIDANCE ACTION ............................................................................................... 17
A DUAL-HORMONE APPROACH IN THE STUDY OF SOCIAL AGGRESSION ......................................................... 18
EFFECT OF BASAL AND EXOGENOUS CORTISOL AND TESTOSTERONE ON SOCIAL AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR ............... 19
STEROIDS AND THE PROCESSING OF FACIAL THREAT ..........................................................................................19
STEROIDS AND DECISION-MAKING .................................................................................................................20
STEROID EFFECTS ON NEURAL CIRCUITRY UNDERLYING AGGRESSION ............................................................ 21
1
,LOW SEROTONIN AND IMPULSIVE AGGRESSION ...................................................................................... 22
A DUAL-HORMONE SEROTONERGIC HYPOTHESIS OF IMPULSIVE AGGRESSION ................................................. 22
WEEK 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 23
ARMSTRONG & OLATUNJI: EYE TRACKING OF ATTENTION IN AFFECTIVE DISORDERS: A META-
ANALYTIC REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS............................................................................................. 23
THEORETICAL ACCOUNTS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS IN AFFECTIVE DISORDERS ..................................................... 24
ANXIETY....................................................................................................................................................24
DEPRESSION ..............................................................................................................................................25
ADVANCING THEORETICAL ACCOUNTS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS WITH EYE TRACKING .......................................... 26
USING EMS AS INDICATORS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS ...........................................................................................26
OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF VIGILANCE AND MAINTENANCE OF ATTENTION IN STUDIES OF ANXIETY ......................26
EM INDICATORS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS IN DEPRESSION .....................................................................................27
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 28
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 28
IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................28
LIMITATIONS..............................................................................................................................................30
KAUSCHE ET AL.: EARLY HYPERVIGILANCE AND LATER AVOIDANCE: EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS
TRACK THE PROCESSING OF THREATENING STIMULI IN ANXIETY ................................................. 30
METHODS .................................................................................................................................... 31
PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................................................................................31
QUESTIONNAIRE.........................................................................................................................................31
EXPERIMENTAL TASK ...................................................................................................................................31
EEG RECORDING AND PROCESSING................................................................................................................31
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 32
ADAPTATION PHASE ....................................................................................................................................32
RE-EXPOSURE PHASE ...................................................................................................................................33
BEHAVIOURAL RATINGS ...............................................................................................................................33
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 33
WEEK 4 EMOTIONAL MEMORY................................................................................................ 34
ELSY & KINDT: TACKLING MALADAPTIVE MEMORIES THROUGH RECONSOLIDATION: FROM
NEURAL TO CLINICAL SCIENCE .................................................................................................... 34
MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION, REACTIVATION AND RECONSOLIDATION NOT SYNONYMOUS ............................... 34
PREDICTION ERROR, RECONSOLIDATION AND EXTINCTION ........................................................................ 35
ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY OF EXPERIMENTAL MODELS .................................................................................. 35
MECHANISMS OF CHANGE AND THE DEMONSTRATION OF RECONSOLIDATION ................................................ 36
CONTINUED TRANSLATION OF BASIC RESEARCH TO CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS ................................................... 36
VAN DE PAVERT: TACKLING FEARFUL AVOIDANCE USING COUNTERCONDITIONING: A CAUSAL TEST
FORT HE ROLE OF APPETITIVE MOTIVATION IN FEARFUL AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR......................... 37
2
,METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 37
RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 37
WEEK 5 REWARD AND MOTIVATION ....................................................................................... 38
SCHOLTEN ET AL.: BEHAVIOURAL TRAININGS AND MANIPULATIONS TO REDUCE DELAY
DISCOUNTING ............................................................................................................................ 38
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 39
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 39
TRAININGS ................................................................................................................................................39
MANIPULATION .........................................................................................................................................40
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 42
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS OF TRAININGS AND MANIPULATIONS ...........................................................................42
IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................43
OVERARCHING MECHANISMS OF CHANGE .......................................................................................................43
MORSINK ET AL.: STUDYING MOTIVATION IN ADHD: THE ROLE OF INTERNAL MOTIVES AND THE
RELEVANCE OF SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY........................................................................... 44
SDT: THE FIVE MINI-THEORIES ........................................................................................................... 45
ORGANISMIC INTEGRATION THEORY ..............................................................................................................45
BASIC NEEDS THEORY ..................................................................................................................................46
GOAL CONTENT THEORY ..............................................................................................................................46
CAUSALITY ORIENTATIONS THEORY ................................................................................................................47
COGNITIVE EVALUATION THEORY...................................................................................................................47
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION IN ADHD .................................................................................................. 48
THE DUAL PATHWAY MODEL.........................................................................................................................48
THE UNIFYING THEORY ................................................................................................................................49
THE COGNITIVE ENERGETIC MODEL ................................................................................................................49
RESEARCH OF MOTIVATION IN ADHD ................................................................................................. 49
HOW CAN SDT INFORM FURTHER RESEARCH ON MOTIVATION IN ADHD ..................................................... 50
ORGANISMIC INTEGRATION THEORY ..............................................................................................................50
CAUSALITY ORIENTATIONS THEORY ................................................................................................................51
COGNITIVE EVALUATION THEORY...................................................................................................................51
SDT AS A MEDIATED MODEL.........................................................................................................................51
SUPPLEMENTING CURRENT ADHD RESEARCH WITH MEASURE OF INTERNAL MOTIVES ............................................51
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................................................... 52
WEEK 6 NEUROCOGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTISOCIAL AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR .. 52
BLAIR: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS IN YOUTHS ............................................. 52
A COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH .............................................................................................. 53
EMOTIONAL LEARNING AND DECISION MAKING................................................................................................54
STRUCTURAL AND ENDOCRINOLOGICAL FINDINGS ................................................................................... 54
GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ............................................................................................. 55
TREATMENT IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................... 55
3
, VASSILOPOULOS & BROUZOS: A MULTI-SESSION ATTRIBUTION MODIFICATION PROGRAM FOR
CHILDREN: EFFECTS ON HOSTILE ATTRIBUTIONS AND REACTIVE/PROACTIVE AGGRESSION .......... 56
STUDY BY VASSILOPOULOS ...........................................................................................................................57
CURRENT STUDY .........................................................................................................................................58
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 58
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 59
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 59
Week 1 An introduction to affective science and psychopathology
Affect: involves an evaluation of a situation as salient & thereby triggering an evolutionary
adaptative response → consists of:
- Subjective (negative or positive) feeling components
- Behavioural (motor expression or inclination) components
- Physiological (brain/body) components
- Event-focus: to what extent is the affective process coupled with an event
- Embodiment: how strong is the physical component
- Emotional reactivity problems
o Intensity, duration, frequency, type
- Emotional regulation problems
o Awareness, goals, strategies
Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): what is the underlying mechanism that causes the
symptoms
- Each symptom gets independently identified → traced back to neurobiological roots
- Not looking into the labels but making categories based on data like genetic risk or
brain activity etc. → see what treatment works best
- Continuous approach: describing behaviour from normal – abnormal, instead of
clinical diagnosis yes or no
- RDoC works by looking at brain and behaviour → linking to clinical symptoms
- DSM and ICD works the other way around:
o First classifying clinical categories and then determining what fits into those
categories
o RDoC includes a broader range of data such as genetics, biology, and
physiology
o The DSM and ICD only include symptom reports or observations
- Criticism: overly biology
Emotion, emotion regulation, and psychopathology: an affective
science perspective
Many psychiatric disorders are said to be characterised by problems with emotion and
emotion regulations, however:
- Heterogeneity of emotion-related processes
4
WEEK 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO AFFECTIVE SCIENCE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY ........................... 4
EMOTION, EMOTION REGULATION, AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: AN AFFECTIVE SCIENCE
PERSPECTIVE................................................................................................................................ 4
DEFINING EMOTION AND EMOTION REGULATION ..................................................................................... 5
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTION AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY ................................................................. 6
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTION REGULATION AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY ................................................ 6
THREE IMPORTANT FACTORS IN EMOTION DYSREGULATION .................................................................................6
IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT ........................................................................ 7
ASSESSMENT ...............................................................................................................................................7
TREATMENT ................................................................................................................................................7
A HEURISTIC FOR DEVELOPING TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODELS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: EXPLAINING
MULTIFINALITY AND DIVERGENT TRAJECTORIES ........................................................................... 8
EXISTING TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODELS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES .................................................... 8
A HEURISTIC FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MODELS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY .............................. 9
DISTAL AND PROXIMAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC RISK FACTORS ........................................................................... 9
DISTAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC FACTORS ................................................................................................................9
PROXIMAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC FACTORS .........................................................................................................10
THREE MECHANISMS LINKING DISTAL AND PROXIMAL TRANSDIAGNOSTIC RISK FACTORS..........................................11
MODERATORS OF THE EFFECTS OF PROXIMAL RISK FACTORS ..............................................................................11
BRAIN DISORDERS? PRECISELY – PRECISION MEDICINE COMES TO PSYCHIATRY .......................... 12
WEEK 2 EMOTION CONTROL ................................................................................................... 13
MONTOYA ET AL.: TESTOSTERONE, CORTISOL, AND SEROTONIN AS KEY REGULATORS OF SOCIAL
AGGRESSION ............................................................................................................................. 15
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 16
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 17
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 17
ENTER, ROELOFS & SPINHOVEN: EFFECTS OF SINGLE DOSE TESTOSTERONE ADMINISTRATION ON
APPROACH–AVOIDANCE ACTION ............................................................................................... 17
A DUAL-HORMONE APPROACH IN THE STUDY OF SOCIAL AGGRESSION ......................................................... 18
EFFECT OF BASAL AND EXOGENOUS CORTISOL AND TESTOSTERONE ON SOCIAL AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR ............... 19
STEROIDS AND THE PROCESSING OF FACIAL THREAT ..........................................................................................19
STEROIDS AND DECISION-MAKING .................................................................................................................20
STEROID EFFECTS ON NEURAL CIRCUITRY UNDERLYING AGGRESSION ............................................................ 21
1
,LOW SEROTONIN AND IMPULSIVE AGGRESSION ...................................................................................... 22
A DUAL-HORMONE SEROTONERGIC HYPOTHESIS OF IMPULSIVE AGGRESSION ................................................. 22
WEEK 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 23
ARMSTRONG & OLATUNJI: EYE TRACKING OF ATTENTION IN AFFECTIVE DISORDERS: A META-
ANALYTIC REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS............................................................................................. 23
THEORETICAL ACCOUNTS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS IN AFFECTIVE DISORDERS ..................................................... 24
ANXIETY....................................................................................................................................................24
DEPRESSION ..............................................................................................................................................25
ADVANCING THEORETICAL ACCOUNTS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS WITH EYE TRACKING .......................................... 26
USING EMS AS INDICATORS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS ...........................................................................................26
OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF VIGILANCE AND MAINTENANCE OF ATTENTION IN STUDIES OF ANXIETY ......................26
EM INDICATORS OF ATTENTIONAL BIAS IN DEPRESSION .....................................................................................27
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 28
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 28
IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................28
LIMITATIONS..............................................................................................................................................30
KAUSCHE ET AL.: EARLY HYPERVIGILANCE AND LATER AVOIDANCE: EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS
TRACK THE PROCESSING OF THREATENING STIMULI IN ANXIETY ................................................. 30
METHODS .................................................................................................................................... 31
PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................................................................................31
QUESTIONNAIRE.........................................................................................................................................31
EXPERIMENTAL TASK ...................................................................................................................................31
EEG RECORDING AND PROCESSING................................................................................................................31
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 32
ADAPTATION PHASE ....................................................................................................................................32
RE-EXPOSURE PHASE ...................................................................................................................................33
BEHAVIOURAL RATINGS ...............................................................................................................................33
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 33
WEEK 4 EMOTIONAL MEMORY................................................................................................ 34
ELSY & KINDT: TACKLING MALADAPTIVE MEMORIES THROUGH RECONSOLIDATION: FROM
NEURAL TO CLINICAL SCIENCE .................................................................................................... 34
MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION, REACTIVATION AND RECONSOLIDATION NOT SYNONYMOUS ............................... 34
PREDICTION ERROR, RECONSOLIDATION AND EXTINCTION ........................................................................ 35
ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY OF EXPERIMENTAL MODELS .................................................................................. 35
MECHANISMS OF CHANGE AND THE DEMONSTRATION OF RECONSOLIDATION ................................................ 36
CONTINUED TRANSLATION OF BASIC RESEARCH TO CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS ................................................... 36
VAN DE PAVERT: TACKLING FEARFUL AVOIDANCE USING COUNTERCONDITIONING: A CAUSAL TEST
FORT HE ROLE OF APPETITIVE MOTIVATION IN FEARFUL AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR......................... 37
2
,METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 37
RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 37
WEEK 5 REWARD AND MOTIVATION ....................................................................................... 38
SCHOLTEN ET AL.: BEHAVIOURAL TRAININGS AND MANIPULATIONS TO REDUCE DELAY
DISCOUNTING ............................................................................................................................ 38
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 39
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 39
TRAININGS ................................................................................................................................................39
MANIPULATION .........................................................................................................................................40
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 42
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS OF TRAININGS AND MANIPULATIONS ...........................................................................42
IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................43
OVERARCHING MECHANISMS OF CHANGE .......................................................................................................43
MORSINK ET AL.: STUDYING MOTIVATION IN ADHD: THE ROLE OF INTERNAL MOTIVES AND THE
RELEVANCE OF SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY........................................................................... 44
SDT: THE FIVE MINI-THEORIES ........................................................................................................... 45
ORGANISMIC INTEGRATION THEORY ..............................................................................................................45
BASIC NEEDS THEORY ..................................................................................................................................46
GOAL CONTENT THEORY ..............................................................................................................................46
CAUSALITY ORIENTATIONS THEORY ................................................................................................................47
COGNITIVE EVALUATION THEORY...................................................................................................................47
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION IN ADHD .................................................................................................. 48
THE DUAL PATHWAY MODEL.........................................................................................................................48
THE UNIFYING THEORY ................................................................................................................................49
THE COGNITIVE ENERGETIC MODEL ................................................................................................................49
RESEARCH OF MOTIVATION IN ADHD ................................................................................................. 49
HOW CAN SDT INFORM FURTHER RESEARCH ON MOTIVATION IN ADHD ..................................................... 50
ORGANISMIC INTEGRATION THEORY ..............................................................................................................50
CAUSALITY ORIENTATIONS THEORY ................................................................................................................51
COGNITIVE EVALUATION THEORY...................................................................................................................51
SDT AS A MEDIATED MODEL.........................................................................................................................51
SUPPLEMENTING CURRENT ADHD RESEARCH WITH MEASURE OF INTERNAL MOTIVES ............................................51
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................................................... 52
WEEK 6 NEUROCOGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTISOCIAL AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR .. 52
BLAIR: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS IN YOUTHS ............................................. 52
A COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACH .............................................................................................. 53
EMOTIONAL LEARNING AND DECISION MAKING................................................................................................54
STRUCTURAL AND ENDOCRINOLOGICAL FINDINGS ................................................................................... 54
GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ............................................................................................. 55
TREATMENT IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................... 55
3
, VASSILOPOULOS & BROUZOS: A MULTI-SESSION ATTRIBUTION MODIFICATION PROGRAM FOR
CHILDREN: EFFECTS ON HOSTILE ATTRIBUTIONS AND REACTIVE/PROACTIVE AGGRESSION .......... 56
STUDY BY VASSILOPOULOS ...........................................................................................................................57
CURRENT STUDY .........................................................................................................................................58
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 58
RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 59
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 59
Week 1 An introduction to affective science and psychopathology
Affect: involves an evaluation of a situation as salient & thereby triggering an evolutionary
adaptative response → consists of:
- Subjective (negative or positive) feeling components
- Behavioural (motor expression or inclination) components
- Physiological (brain/body) components
- Event-focus: to what extent is the affective process coupled with an event
- Embodiment: how strong is the physical component
- Emotional reactivity problems
o Intensity, duration, frequency, type
- Emotional regulation problems
o Awareness, goals, strategies
Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): what is the underlying mechanism that causes the
symptoms
- Each symptom gets independently identified → traced back to neurobiological roots
- Not looking into the labels but making categories based on data like genetic risk or
brain activity etc. → see what treatment works best
- Continuous approach: describing behaviour from normal – abnormal, instead of
clinical diagnosis yes or no
- RDoC works by looking at brain and behaviour → linking to clinical symptoms
- DSM and ICD works the other way around:
o First classifying clinical categories and then determining what fits into those
categories
o RDoC includes a broader range of data such as genetics, biology, and
physiology
o The DSM and ICD only include symptom reports or observations
- Criticism: overly biology
Emotion, emotion regulation, and psychopathology: an affective
science perspective
Many psychiatric disorders are said to be characterised by problems with emotion and
emotion regulations, however:
- Heterogeneity of emotion-related processes
4
