Schönfelder Sandra, Langer Johanna, Schneider Eva Elisa, Wessa Michèle
Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute for Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute for Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany; Section for Pediatric Oncology, Haematology and Haemostaseology, University Medicine Mainz, Germany.
J Affect Disord. 2017 Aug 15;218:313-321. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.04.073. Epub 2017 Apr 30.
Early cognitive models of mania posit that a cognitive triad consisting of unrealistically optimistic beliefs about the self, world and future may predispose vulnerable individuals to develop manic symptoms. Hypomanic personality traits (HYP) pose such a vulnerability factor in the etiopathogenesis of mania.
To test the cognitive tenet of overly optimistic views of the future, 24 individuals with high-HYP and 24 age- and sex-matched controls (low-HYP) performed a belief update paradigm, during which they estimated their personal chances to experience future positive and negative life events. Afterwards, they were presented with the statistical likelihood of each event occurring to a peer living in the same socio-cultural environment and given the chance to adjust their initial estimates.
High-HYP individuals exhibited an asymmetric belief revision for positive events, reflected by an exaggerated incorporation of better-than-expected and an impaired integration of worse-than-expected information, relative to their low-HYP control counterparts. The strength of this optimistic update bias was linked to the trait sensitivity of the behavioral approach system. Furthermore, high-HYP individuals demonstrated a more optimistic initial prediction bias, characterized by greater overestimations of their likelihood to experience positive events, and reported enhanced trait optimism.
The cross-sectional study relied on an extreme-group design to define mania risk.
Due to the crucial role of future-oriented beliefs in guiding decision-making and goal-directed behavior, this optimistic update bias for positive events may cognitively underpin the mania-typical engagement in highly pleasurable activities despite warnings for harmful consequences.
早期的躁狂认知模型认为，由对自我、世界和未来不切实际的乐观信念组成的认知三联征可能使易患个体出现躁狂症状。轻躁狂人格特质（HYP）在躁狂症的病因发病机制中构成这样一个易患因素。
为了检验对未来过度乐观看法的认知原则，24名高HYP个体和24名年龄及性别匹配的对照组（低HYP）进行了信念更新范式实验，在此过程中他们估计自己经历未来积极和消极生活事件的个人概率。之后，向他们展示了在相同社会文化环境中生活的同龄人发生每个事件的统计可能性，并让他们有机会调整最初的估计。
相对于低HYP对照组，高HYP个体对积极事件表现出不对称的信念修正，表现为过度纳入好于预期的信息以及对差于预期的信息整合受损。这种乐观更新偏差的强度与行为趋近系统的特质敏感性相关。此外，高HYP个体表现出更乐观的初始预测偏差，其特征是对自己经历积极事件可能性的高估程度更高，并报告了增强的特质乐观性。
横断面研究依赖极端组设计来定义躁狂风险。
由于面向未来的信念在指导决策和目标导向行为中起关键作用，这种对积极事件的乐观更新偏差可能在认知上支持了尽管有有害后果的警告但仍典型地参与高度愉悦活动的躁狂行为。
