Background and Hypothesis Social cognitive impairments are central to psychosis, including lower severity psychosis-like experiences (PLEs). Nonetheless, progress has been hindered by social cognition’s poorly defined factor structure, as well as limited work examining the specificity of social cognitive impairment to psychosis. The present study examined how PLEs relate to social cognition in the context of other psychopathology dimensions, using a hierarchical factors approach to social cognition. Study Design Online community participants (N = 1026) completed psychosis, autism, and personality disorder questionnaires, as well as 3 social cognitive tasks that varied in methodology (vignette vs video) and construct (higher- vs lower-level social cognition). Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to model social cognition, with the best models being examined in association with PLEs and psychopathology dimensions. Study Results EFA and CFA supported a hierarchical model of social cognition, with 2 higher-order factors emerging: verbal/vignette task methodology and a multimethod general social cognition factor. These higher-order factors accounted for task-level associations to psychopathology, with relations to positive symptoms (r = .23) and antagonism (r = .28). After controlling for other psychopathology, positive symptoms were most clearly related to tasks with verbal methodology (β = −0.34). Conclusions These results suggest that broad social cognitive processes and method effects may account for many previous findings in psychosis and psychopathology research. Additionally, accounting for broad social cognitive impairment may yield insights into more specific social cognitive processes as well.

中文翻译：

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使用社会认知的分层模型了解精神病谱


背景和假设 社会认知障碍是精神病的核心，包括轻度精神病样经历（PLE）。尽管如此，由于社会认知的因素结构定义不明确，以及检验社会认知障碍与精神病的特异性的工作有限，进展受到阻碍。本研究使用社会认知的分层因素方法，研究了 PLE 在其他精神病理学维度的背景下如何与社会认知相关。研究设计 在线社区参与者 (N = 1026) 完成了精神病、自闭症和人格障碍问卷调查，以及 3 项在方法论（小插图与视频）和结构（高级与低级社会认知）方面有所不同的社会认知任务。探索性因素分析 (EFA) 和验证性因素分析 (CFA) 用于建立社会认知模型，并结合 PLE 和精神病理学维度对最佳模型进行检查。研究结果 EFA 和 CFA 支持社会认知的分层模型，出现了 2 个高阶因素：言语/小插图任务方法和多方法一般社会认知因素。这些高阶因素解释了任务水平与精神病理学的关联，以及与阳性症状（r = .23）和拮抗（r = .28）的关系。在控制其他精神病理学后，阳性症状与言语方法任务最明显相关（β = -0.34）。结论 这些结果表明，广泛的社会认知过程和方法效应可能解释了精神病和精神病理学研究中的许多先前发现。此外，考虑广泛的社会认知障碍也可能有助于了解更具体的社会认知过程。