Harmonizing cross-cultural and transdiagnostic assessment of social cognition by expert panel consensus
Social cognition, the perception and processing of social information, is adversely affected in multiple psychiatric, neurological, and neurodevelopmental disorders, and these impairments negatively impact quality of life for individuals across the globe. Despite the clear importance of social cognition, efforts to advance research via harmonization of data across cultures and diagnoses has been stymied by the lack of uniformly used and suitable assessments. To address this issue, the current study conducted an expert survey and consensus process to identify social cognitive assessments that are best suited for cross-cultural and transdiagnostic use among adults. A large group of experts in social cognition were surveyed to gather nominations for cross-culturally and transdiagnostically appropriate measures. These measures were then critically evaluated by a smaller group of experts using a Delphi consensus process to identify the best existing tasks for each use. Ninety-eight experts, representing 25 countries, responded to the initial survey and nominated a total of 81 tasks. Initial rounds of the Delphi process identified 50 tasks with adequate psychometric properties that were then subdivided into social cognition domains. For each domain, members ranked the five best tasks, once for cross-cultural use and once for transdiagnostic use, and rated the suitability of those tasks for the intended use. No tasks were identified as ideally suited for either use; however, within each domain, 4-5 tasks emerged as the most consistently selected, and all were ranked as having "good" or better suitability for use. While there is still a critical need for social cognitive assessments that are specifically designed for cross-cultural and transdiagnostic use, there does appear to be a handful of existing tasks that are currently available and likely informative. Caution is warranted however, as these still require comprehensive evaluation in cross-cultural and transdiagnostic studies.
Authors
- Tim Ziermans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5224-1365)
- Clare M. Eddy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7821-1121)
- Urvakhsh Meherwan Mehta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2252-9189)
- Monica Mazza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4050-2243)
- Arundati Nagendra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0347-399X)
- Skye McDonald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0723-6094)
- Lindsay D. Oliver (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2163-7257)
- Anne M. Buunk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7346-5691)
- Beshaun J. Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9436-6534)
- David L. Penn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4567-0166)
- Taeyoung Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2317-3451)
- Michal Hajdúk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7073-7564)
- Anne‐Kathrin Fett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0282-273X)
- Julia M. Sheffield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4173-9330)
- Ana T. Flores (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0027-7731)
- Amy E. Pinkham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2803-4520)
- Maxime Bertoux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5283-503X)
- Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3339-6665)
- Tamara P. Tavares (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3043-9773)
- Bram‐Sieben Rosema
- Kelsey A. Bonfils (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8556-5961)
- Lucy A. Livingston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-6525)
- Minji Bang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1669-4014)
- Raymond C. Chan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3397-2351)
- Andrew Spink
- Bodi Bodenhamer
Institutions
- University of Technology Sydney (AU)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- Inserm (FR)
- The University of Texas at Dallas (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- St George's, University of London (GB)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- King's College London (GB)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- York University (CA)
- Université de Lille (FR)
- University of L'Aquila (IT)
- Hospital for Sick Children (CA)
- Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille (FR)
- Kyungpook National University (KR)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Stenden University of Applied Sciences (NL)
- Noldus Information Technology (NL)
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- CHA University Bundang Medical Center (KR)
- SickKids Foundation (CA)
- CHA University (KR)
- Vitenparken (NO)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Lille Neurosciences & Cognition (FR)
- City St George's, University of London (GB)
- University of Southern Mississippi (US)
- Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
- New York University (US)
- National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IN)
- Comenius University Bratislava (SK)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Schizophrenia
- Published
- 2025-02-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-024-00540-7
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Empathy and Medical Education
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.36