Browsing by Subject "Interpretation Bias"
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Item Open Access Pathways linking school bullying and psychotic experiences: Multiple mediation analysis in Chinese adolescents and young adults(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022-10-28) Chen, Lu Hua; Toulopoulou, TimotheaIt is found that people with psychotic experiences have a 4-fold increased risk of developing a psychotic disorder later in life. Indeed, accumulating evidence has suggested that the association between school bullying and psychotic experiences works linearly. Previous studies are mainly carried out in a Western context, and only seldomly do studies address whether the association exists in the Chinese population and the related psychological and cognitive mechanisms. Therefore, we carried out the current study to address this gap in the literature focusing on the lifelong school bullying experiences of Chinese adolescents and young adults. We examined them in relation to psychotic experiences while assessing the mediating role of self-esteem, the personality trait of neuroticism, and a cognitive bias in thinking called interpretation bias. We found that multiple victimizations were quite common in Hong Kong secondary schools. In addition to a significant association between school bullying and psychotic experiences, we found partial mediating effects of proposed psychological and cognitive mediators in constructed multiple mediation models utilizing bootstrapping approach. Specifically, bullying quantity reflecting the number of victimizations, had its association with psychotic experiences partially mediated by the personality trait of neuroticism. In contrast, bullying duration reflecting the lasting of victimization was associated with psychotic experiences partially mediated by the personality trait of neuroticism and interpretation bias. Our findings enhance our knowledge of mechanisms underpinning the psychosis spectrum development and have implications for school-based intervention programs targeting bullying victims. Copyright © 2022 Chen and Toulopoulou.Item Open Access Reciprocal influences of interpretation and attentional biases to health-related information(2018-09) Elhamiasl, MinaCognitive processing biases to health-related information have been endorsed to be present in patients who are su ering from medical diseases. Attentional bias is one of the cognitive processes which facilitates the detection of health-threatening information. Interpretation bias is the other cognitive mechanism that makes patients attribute catastrophic meanings to ambiguous bodily sensations. Despite the literature demonstrating that attentional and interpretation biases increase negative emotions and challenge patients for adaptation to their health condition, the link between these two biases has remained unclear. While some theories claim that attentional and interpretation biases are interrelated, some state that they might be orthogonal components of cognitive processing. Therefore, this thesis aimed to investigate the relationship between interpretation and attentional biases to health-related information by modifying interpretation bias and studying its e ect on attentional bias. One hundred undergraduate students who lacked any medical or psychological problems were randomly allocated to Main-Modi cation or Placebo-Modi cation groups. All participants were asked to complete a battery of questionnaire including health anxiety inventory, Beck depression inventory, and Beck anxiety inventory in order to control between-group di erences regarding these constructs. As the pre-modi cation assessment, participants' interpretation and attentional biases to health-related information were respectively measured using the Modi ed Version of Online Interpretation Bias and Dot-probe tasks. Then, the Main- Modi cation group underwent Main On-line Negative Interpretation Bias Modi- cation Task aimed to impose unsafe and threatening interpretations for ambiguous health-related scenarios. The Placebo-modi cation group completed Placebo On-line Negative Interpretation Bias Modi cation Task. The modi cation phase was followed by post-modi cation measurements. Results revealed that the participants in the Main-Modi cation group experienced more post-test interpretation bias indexed by Unsafe valence of interpretations for ambiguous health-related situations compared to the Placebo group. The Post-test between-group di erence, however, was not signi cant for interpretation bias indexed by reaction time. Main negative interpretation bias modi cation succeeded to amplify attentional bias toward Ambiguous images in the Main group but Placebo modi cation did not do so. Unlike Placebo modi cation, Main modi cation increased attentional bias to Health-Related images as well. However, this increase was not statistically signi cant. These results can be considered as the pieces of evidence endorsing the idea that interpretation and attentional biases are interrelated aspects of cognitive processing. Repeated exposure to negative interpretations for health-related situations might increase patients' accessibility to negative meanings for interpreting further ambiguous health-related situations. In turn, the new negative meanings might facilitate detection of ambiguous bodily sensations or another health-related information known as attentional bias.