Abstract
Amotivation is a common symptom in various mental disorders, including psychotic or depressive disorders. Effort-based decision-making (EBDM)-tasks quantifying amotivation at a behavioral level have been on the rise. Task performance has been shown to differentiate patient groups from healthy controls. However, findings on indicators of construct validity, such as the correlations between different tasks and between tasks and self-reported/observer-rated amotivation in clinical and healthy samples have been inconclusive. In a representative community sample (N=90), we tested the construct validity of the Deck Choice Task, the Expenditure for Rewards Task and the Balloon Task. We calculated correlations between the EBDM-tasks and between the EBDM-tasks and self-reported amotivation, apathy, anticipatory pleasure, and BIS/BAS. Correlations between tasks were low to moderate (0.198≤r≤0.358), with the Balloon Task showing the largest correlations with the other tasks, but no significant correlations between any EBDM-task and the self-report measures. Although different EBDM-tasks are conceptualized to measure the same construct, a large part of what each task measures could not be accounted for by the other tasks. Moreover, the tasks did not appear to substantially capture what was measured in established self-report instruments for amotivation in our sample, which could be interpreted as questioning the construct validity of EBDM-tasks.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.