Emotion Regulation in Trait Schizotypy

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Our aim is to compare state anger and state emotion regulation strategies in healthy individuals with high trait schizotypy and to look at differences of induced anger, negative emotions, decrease of positive emotions and aggressive behaviour after anger induction. Our further aim is to compare conditions where an instruction to suppress or reappraise emotions is given with a control condition with no instruction.

Official Title
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Emotion Regulation in Individuals With High and Low Trait Schizotypy. A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Suppression and Reappraisal

Conditions
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Trait Schizotypy

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: instruction to suppress
* Behavioral: instruction to reappraise
* Behavioral: control


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: age between 18 and 58 years, good command of German language Exclusion Criteria: present or past psychiatric or neurological illness, ongoing treatment with psychiatric drugs, constant consume of heroin or hallucinogenic drugs, alcohol dependence, cannabis consume two weeks before testing.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 58 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: Low schizotypy<br>Schizotypy score < 14 measured by the German Version of Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (Klein, Andresen, & Jahn, 1997) | Behavioral: instruction to suppress<br>* It might happen that in some situations in which you try to do something and you fail or things don't come up as you want, you could become angry, mad or irritated and feel some level of distress and discomfort. Next, try not to think of the situation that makes you angry, mad or irritated. Please try as much as you cannot to think about the situation, don't think about how you feel or what had happened, and try to suppress your emotions and not to feel them. It's very important to try as much as you cannot to think about the situation that makes you angry, mad or irritated. (Szasz, Szentagothai, & Hoffmann, 2011)<br>Behavioral: instruction to reappraise<br>* It might happen that in some situations in which you try to do something and you fail or things don't come up as you want, you could become angry, mad or irritated and feel some level of distress and discomfort. Next, please try to tell yourself that or would be preferable that the others are nice and/or fair to you, but if they are not, it does not mean that you or they are worthless human beings. It would be preferable that the others be nice and/or fair to you but if they are not, remember that it is only (very) bad), not catastrophic (the worst thing that could happen to you). It would be preferable that others are nice and/or fair to you, but if they are not, you can tolerate it, and go on enjoying life, even if it's more difficult at the beginning. (Szasz et al., 2011)<br>Behavioral: control<br>* No instruction<br>|
| Other: High schizotypy<br>Schizotypy score ≥ 14 measured by the German Version of Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (Klein, Andresen, & Jahn, 1997) | Behavioral: instruction to suppress<br>* It might happen that in some situations in which you try to do something and you fail or things don't come up as you want, you could become angry, mad or irritated and feel some level of distress and discomfort. Next, try not to think of the situation that makes you angry, mad or irritated. Please try as much as you cannot to think about the situation, don't think about how you feel or what had happened, and try to suppress your emotions and not to feel them. It's very important to try as much as you cannot to think about the situation that makes you angry, mad or irritated. (Szasz, Szentagothai, & Hoffmann, 2011)<br>Behavioral: instruction to reappraise<br>* It might happen that in some situations in which you try to do something and you fail or things don't come up as you want, you could become angry, mad or irritated and feel some level of distress and discomfort. Next, please try to tell yourself that or would be preferable that the others are nice and/or fair to you, but if they are not, it does not mean that you or they are worthless human beings. It would be preferable that the others be nice and/or fair to you but if they are not, remember that it is only (very) bad), not catastrophic (the worst thing that could happen to you). It would be preferable that others are nice and/or fair to you, but if they are not, you can tolerate it, and go on enjoying life, even if it's more difficult at the beginning. (Szasz et al., 2011)<br>Behavioral: control<br>* No instruction<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| state anger | measured by the German version of State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Schwenkmetzger, Hodapp, & Spielberger, 1992) | 3 minutes | 
| state negative emotions | measured by the German Version of Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Krohne, Egloff, Kohlmann, & Tausch, 1996) | 3 minutes | 
| state positive emotions | measured by the German Version of Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Krohne, Egloff, Kohlmann, & Tausch, 1996) | 3 minutes | 
| aggressive behavior | measured by the amount of chili measured by the Hot Sauce Paradigm (Lieberman, Solomon, Greenberg, & McGregor, 1999) | 3 minutes |