About this course

Learning Objectives

• Identify and describe a patients' "negative symptoms" as specific behavior, feelings and thoughts.
• Describe their situational triggers and consequences and underlying drivers.
• Recite interventions that accord with their patient's individual profile.
• Explain the differences between clinical rating scales for the assessment of negative symptoms.
• Describe the strengths and limitations of behavioral coding methods for assessing negative symptoms.
• Explain the different assessment methods for their applicability in clinical practice.

Learning Levels

• All Levels

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Prof. Dr. Tania Lincoln

  Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

  Tania Lincoln studied Psychology in Marburg, Germany. She completed her PhD in 2003 at the Philipps-Universität Marburg and her training as a clinical psychologist in 2004. From 2003 to 2005 she worked in a psychiatric mental health setting where she became increasingly interested in psychological therapy for psychosis. From 2005 to 2011 she was the principal investigator in a randomized controlled trial on CBT for psychosis at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. Since 2011 she is professor for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Universität Hamburg in the Faculty of Psychology and Movement Science, for which she was the Dean from 2018-2020. She is the director of the university outpatient mental health department and the scientific director of the therapist training program. Her research focuses on understanding the psychological mechanisms of psychotic symptoms and on improving interventions for psychosis and is reflected in numerous books and publications.

• 

  Ann Kring, Ph.D.

  Professor of the Graduate School, University of California, Berkeley

  Ann Kring received a B.S. in psychology from Ball State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is currently Professor of the Graduate School and formerly Chair of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focused on emotion and psychopathology, with a specific interest in the emotional features of schizophrenia, including the negative symptoms and the linkage between social motivation and emotion. Kring and her group also worked to translate laboratory findings into effective assessment tools and psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia. Kring is past president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology and the Society for Affective Science, and a Fellow in the Association for Psychological Science, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Society for Experimental Psychologists, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has co-authored 13 books and published over 125 scholarly papers in the top journals in the field.

References

• Lincoln, T. (2025). Precision Therapy. Psychosocial Approaches to Negative Symptoms in Psychosis: Assessment and Intervention for Clinicians and Researchers, 125.
• Lincoln, T. M., Riehle, M., Pillny, M., Helbig-Lang, S., Fladung, A. K., Hartmann-Riemer, M., & Kaiser, S. (2017). Using functional analysis as a framework to guide individualized treatment for negative symptoms. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 2108. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02108
• Blanchard, J. J., Shan, L., Andrea, A., Savage, C., Kring, A. M., & Weittenhiller, L. (2020). Negative symptoms and their assessment in schizophrenia and related disorders. In A clinical introduction to psychosis (pp. 153-175). Academic Press.
• Lincoln, T. M., Dollfus, S., & Lyne, J. (2017). Current developments and challenges in the assessment of negative symptoms. Schizophrenia research, 186, 8-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2016.02.035
• Moran, E. K., & Kring, A. M. (2018). Anticipatory emotion in schizophrenia. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617730877
• Strauss, G. P., & Gold, J. M. (2016). A psychometric comparison of the clinical assessment interview for negative symptoms and the brief negative symptom scale. Schizophrenia bulletin, 42(6), 1384-1394. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw046
• Weittenhiller, L. P., & Kring, A. M. (2026). Deciding to be left alone after being left out: behavioral responses to social exclusion in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 52(1), sbae226. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbae226
• Weittenhiller, L. P., Mikhail, M. E., Mote, J., Campellone, T. R., & Kring, A. M. (2021). What gets in the way of social engagement in schizophrenia?. World journal of psychiatry, 11(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v11.i1.13
• Weigel, L., Wehr, S., Galderisi, S., Mucci, A., Davis, J., Giordano, G. M., & Leucht, S. (2023). The Brief negative Symptom Scale (BNSS): a systematic review of measurement properties. Schizophrenia, 9(1), 45. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-023-00380-x