Facial Emotion Recognition and its Associations With Psychological Well-Being Across Four Schizotypal Dimensions: a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to examine facial emotion recognition in a sample from the general population with elevated schizotypal traits, as defined by the four-factor model of schizotypy, and the association of facial emotion recognition and the schizotypal dimensions with psychological well-being.

Method: Two hundred and thirty-eight participants were allocated into four schizotypal groups and one control group. Following a cross-sectional study design, facial emotion recognition was assessed with a computerized task that included images from the Radboud Faces Database, schizotypal traits were measured with the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, and psychological well-being was evaluated with the Flourishing scale.

Results: The results revealed distinct patterns of performance across the schizotypal groups and the application of a dimensional approach that included all participants as one group indicated specific associations between the four schizotypal dimensions and psychological well-being. Specifically, (a) negative schizotypes showed poor identification of sadness and fear potentially due to the activation of coping mechanisms, (b) disorganized schizotypes inaccurately recognized surprise, possibly reflecting the effects of disorganized thought on distinguishing this ambiguous emotion, and (c) psychological well-being was predicted by high cognitive-perceptual along with low negative and disorganized schizotypy as well as the accurate recognition of specific emotional states that are common in daily social interactions.

Conclusions: In conclusion, the study findings further advance the identification of emotion-processing difficulties in schizophrenia-vulnerable individuals and further highlight the need for highly personalized early intervention strategies.

Keywords: Emotions/emotional processing; Executive functions; Quality of life; Schizophrenia.

Fig. 1

Correct facial emotion recognition responses in upright (upper panel) and inverted (lower panel) faces across the four schizotypal dimensions. ^***p < .001; ^**p < .01; ^*p < .05.