Matthew Kurtz

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link

Abstract: Individuals with schizophrenia often experience deficits in social cognition and social functioning. Specifically, they may have difficulty in domains such as theory of mind, empathy, affect recognition, and social perception. These difficulties may serve as barriers to normal social interactions, including perceiving and responding to the actions of others as well as correctly identifying social contexts. Most of the research on social cognition in schizophrenia has taken place in western cultures using measures based on western societal norms. This has led to questions of culture’s influence on social cognition in individuals with schizophrenia. For example: how might differing social norms affect social cognition? And, does culture influence the utility of current measures used to test social cognition across the world? Relevant studies collected from the PsychINFO, PubMed, CINAHL, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses databases, published in or after 1980, will be used to address these questions. Insight into culture’s influence on social cognition and its measurement could lead to the development of more culturally-sensitive approaches to the assessment, treatment, and understanding of schizophrenia. Findings could also call into question our fundamental understanding of social cognition in people with schizophrenia — such as its neural components, development, and presentation, requiring further research.

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