Theses and Dissertations

Duncan Jordan

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Winer, E. Samuel

Committee Member

Nadorff, Michael R.

Committee Member

Berman, Mitchell E.

Committee Member

Jarosz, Andrew F.

Date of Degree

8-7-2020

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 2 years

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Clinical Psychology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has provided a framework for studying psychopathology known as the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), which conceptualizes depression and other mental disorders on a continuum of levels of analysis, ranging from molecular dysfunction to impairment in cognitive systems indexed by behavioral paradigms. Within the RDoC, these units of analysis and their corresponding normal-to-abnormal functioning can be placed within six domains: (1) negative valence systems; (2) positive valence systems; (3) cognitive systems; (4) social processes; (5) arousal and regulatory systems; and (6) sensorimotor systems. Given the recent emphasis on identifying further mechanisms associated with positive valence systems dysfunction, the present study aimed to assess the relationship between various behavioral paradigms (indexing perception, attention, affective working memory updating, and effort expenditure) and various conceptualizations of anhedonia, a heterogeneous, transdiagnostic symptom implicated as a core component within this domain. Participants (N = 101) with a range of depressive symptoms were recruited for a longitudinal study and completed six weekly in-person sessions, as well as a follow-up session that occurred approximately six weeks after the last session. Findings suggest there were no robust associations between these behavioral paradigms and various self-report measures of anhedonia, contrasting with previous empirical findings. As such, future studies are warranted to continue assessing these possible mechanisms of positive valence systems disturbance.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18024

Comments

NIMH||RDoC||Anhedonia||Depression||Bayesian||Positive Valence Systems

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