Social Avoidance in Depression: A Study Using a Social Decision-Making Task
Social Avoidance in Depression: A Study Using a Social Decision-Making Task
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DOI：
10.1037/abn0000415
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发表时间：
2019-04-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Gradin, Victoria B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Fernandez-Theoduloz, Gabriela;Paz, Valentina;Gradin, Victoria B.
抑郁症严重影响人际功能。社交回避可能在抑郁症中起重要作用，限制了机会和社交技能的获得，有助于维持社交困难。在过去的几年里，使用交互式任务研究社会互动的必要性已经凸显出来。本研究采用一种新的计算机化社会决策任务（TEAM任务），调查了未服药的抑郁症（n = 26）和匹配的健康对照（n = 26）参与者的社会回避。在这个任务中，参与者在社交选项（与合作者一起玩）和个人选项（独自玩）之间进行选择。虽然从物质的角度来看，社会选择更有利可图，但由于社会比较和对团队失败的内疚感，它也可能具有挑战性。结果发现，合作者的级别越高，参与者报告的负面情绪（羞耻，内疚）越强，他们选择的个人选项越多。抑郁的参与者对这项任务的积极（幸福）和消极（羞耻，内疚，失望）的感觉明显减少。重要的是，抑郁的参与者比对照组更经常选择个人选项，这导致该组的收益较低。此外，随着任务的进展，控制选择的个人选项较少，而抑郁的参与者选择的个人选项更频繁。我们的研究结果说明了社交回避在抑郁症中的重要性，以及这种行为如何导致负面后果。他们还强调了社会比较和内疚相关过程在抑郁症中潜在的社会回避中的作用。
Depression significantly affects interpersonal functioning. Social avoidance may play an important role in depression, limiting opportunities and social skills acquisition, contributing to the maintenance of social difficulties. In the last few years, the need for studying social interactions using interactive tasks has been highlighted. This study investigated social avoidance in unmedicated depressed (n = 26) and matched healthy control (n = 26) participants, using a novel computerized social decision-making task (the TEAM task). In this task, participants choose between a social option (playing in a team with a coplayer) and an individual option (playing alone). Although the social option is more profitable from a material point of view, it can also be challenging because of social comparison and guilt feelings for failing the team. It was found that the higher the rank of the coplayer, the stronger the negative emotions (shame, guilt) reported by participants and the more they opted for the individual option. Depressed participants reported significantly less positive (happiness) and more negative (shame, guilt, disappointment) feelings regarding the task. Importantly, depressed participants chose the individual option significantly more often than controls, which led to lower gains in this group. Furthermore, as the task progressed, controls selected the individual option less often, whereas depressed participants selected the individual option more often. Our findings illustrate the importance of social avoidance in depression and how this behavior can lead to negative consequences. They also highlight the role of social comparison and guilt-related processes in underlying social avoidance in depression.