The role of affective theory of mind in the association between trauma and psychotic-Like experiences

While it has been established that childhood trauma is associated with experiencing psychosis, the dynamics of this relationship are far from being understood. Social cognition is thought to be an important factor for understanding this association as it has been found that social difficulties predict functional outcome in psychosis better than non-social cognitive difficulties. This thesis set out to explore these variables, specifically the role that affective theory of mind has on the association between childhood trauma and psychotic-like experiences. Following PRISMA guidelines, the association between the reading the eyes in the mind test, a measure of affective theory of mind, and paranoia, a psychosis-like experience, were evaluated through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of the studies. Deficits on the tests have been found to be associated with the experience of paranoia with a small magnitude effect size. In the research paper, the reading the eyes in the mind test was used to explore the effect of affective theory of mind on the association between childhood trauma and psychotic-like experiences, through an online survey. Affective theory of mind was not a mediator of this association and did not predict psychotic-like experiences. This suggests that the affective component of theory of mind is not related to psychotic-like experiences in the general population. The characteristics of the sample and the nature of the questionnaires implemented may have played an important role in obtaining these results. These confounders have been fully explored and discussed within the context of future research