Chapter 5 - Positive interpretation bias across the psychiatric disorders

Abstract

Although the vast majority of research in the area of interpretation biases has focused on negative interpretation biases, researchers have increasingly focused on understanding positive interpretation biases, and notably, findings from this research highlight the importance of positive interpretation biases in healthy controls and clinical samples. Indeed, positive interpretation bias may be a more important predictor of symptomatology than the presence of a negative interpretation bias. This chapter systematically reviews the existing literature on the major theories concerned with a positive interpretation bias, the methods that have been used to investigate the bias, brain regions and somatovisceral responses associated with a positive interpretation bias, and similarities and differences between healthy and clinical populations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the limitations associated with the existing evidence and suggests a number of future directions for the field. In sum, positive interpretation biases are being identified as increasingly important in understanding risk and resilience in psychopathology, and as such, this field represents an exciting and important area for future research.