Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Mental illness is the leading cause of disability worldwide, primarily due to the high degree of associated functional impairment. Interpersonal dysfunction (i.e., difficulties forming and maintaining relationships) contributes to both the development and maintenance of mental illness, and it is rated as the most distressing and impairing feature. Consequently, identifying the predictors of interpersonal dysfunction is crucial to reducing the personal and societal burden of mental illness. Theory of mind (ToM), a range of skills that involve decoding and reasoning about others' internal mental states, has been proposed as the foundation of interpersonal functioning, thereby representing a potential risk factor for interpersonal dysfunction in mental illness. However, before such conclusions are drawn, research is needed to investigate whether ToM skills prospectively predict interpersonal dysfunction among patients with mental illness. Further, if ToM is a risk factor for interpersonal dysfunction, it is crucial to identify whether ToM skills are being targeted in existing treatments or whether treatments need to be modified to leverage this mechanism of change. Given these gaps in knowledge, the proposed research aims to: 1) Examine the predictive validity of ToM on interpersonal functioning and mental health symptoms in a longitudinal design and a psychiatric sample. 2) Conduct a wait-list controlled study to examine the effect of cognitive behavioural therapy in a partial hospital setting on ToM skills. This research will expand previous interpersonal models of mental illness to include foundational social cognitive processes and will have broad theoretical, empirical, and clinical implications. Ultimately, this research will inform the implementation of effective treatments that will help to reduce the costly personal and societal burden of mental illness.