Childhood trauma, dissociation, post-traumatic stress disorder and cognitions in clinical and non-clinical populations

Background: Childhood Trauma has been linked to a wide range of psychopathologies. However, although individuals diagnosed with psychosis and individuals diagnosed with BPD have been found to overlap in terms of their trauma histories, and similar trauma-related mechanisms have been explored in both groups, these two clinical groups are often studied in isolation. The main aim of this thesis was to explore how trauma and trauma-related mechanisms are related to the development of psychotic and borderline symptomatology from both a diagnostic and transdiagnostic perspective. Method: First, theoretical accounts of critical concepts and of BPD and psychosis were reviewed. Second, a systematic review approached psychotic symptomatology from a transdiagnostic perspective, in which the relationship between childhood trauma, cognitive appraisals and psychotic-like experiences were examined in samples drawn from different psychosis populations. Third, an empirical study examined the relationship between childhood traumas, trauma-related mechanisms and psychotic and borderline symptomatology from both a diagnostic and transdiagnostic perspective. Finally, an attempt was made to integrate theoretical accounts with the thesis findings, and research and clinical implications were discussed. Results: Findings from the systematic review supported previous evidence suggesting that there is a dose-response relationship between trauma severity and symptom severity, and that specific trauma types may be linked to specific symptoms. These findings were confirmed in the empirical paper (and outlined in an additional results chapter). The findings also suggested an important role of trauma-related mechanisms and supported transdiagnostic predictions. Specifically, dissociation and post-traumatic symptomatology may partially explain development of psychosis and borderline symptomatology, respectively. Conclusion: The relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis and borderline symptomatology is becoming well established. This thesis portfolio emphasised the benefits of approaching symptomatology from a transdiagnostic perspective, as well as the advantages of using more complex statistical approaches when exploring these relationships

How Psychological Stress Affects Emotional Prosody

We explored how experimentally induced psychological stress affects the production and recognition of vocal emotions. In Study 1a, we demonstrate that sentences spoken by stressed speakers are judged by naive listeners as sounding more stressed than sentences uttered by non-stressed speakers. In Study 1b, negative emotions produced by stressed speakers are generally less well recognized than the same emotions produced by non-stressed speakers. Multiple mediation analyses suggest this poorer recognition of negative stimuli was due to a mismatch between the variation of volume voiced by speakers and the range of volume expected by listeners. Together, this suggests that the stress level of the speaker affects judgments made by the receiver. In Study 2, we demonstrate that participants who were induced with a feeling of stress before carrying out an emotional prosody recognition task performed worse than non-stressed participants. Overall, findings suggest detrimental effects of induced stress on interpersonal sensitivity

Multiple mediation model for sentences voiced in negative emotions.

<p>Dotted paths are non-significant.</p

Lens model of vocal emotion expressions.

<p>The model describes the relationship between speakers’ production of vocal cues and listeners’ utilization of these cues.</p

Acoustic Analysis Results.

<p>Acoustic Analysis Results.</p

Emotion Recognition Rates.

<p>Emotion Recognition Rates.</p

Emotion Recognition Rates.

<p>Emotion Recognition Rates.</p