Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Positive Affect: Insights from Adolescent Twins

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
  • Published:
Affective Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Disturbances in positive affect and reductions in social reward/interpersonal pleasure are common across a range of clinical disorders and are often related. We examined the relationship between the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS-A), and other measures of positive affect in adolescents in a genetically informative research design. The sample consisted of 177 MZ and 136 same-sex DZ twins drawn from a study of adolescent twins (M = 16.4 ± .97 years) who were part of the Wisconsin Twin Project. The self-report questionnaires included the Behavioral Activation Scale (BAS), Psychological Well-Being Scale, revised Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQR), and the adolescent version of the ACIPS (ACIPS-A). Structural equation modeling estimated the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the phenotypic variance in each of the measures. Follow-up bivariate analyses parsed the genetic and environmental contributions to the phenotypic covariances between the ACIPS-A and each of the other measures of positive affect. We found evidence of moderate heritability for the ACIPS-A scale scores. Overall, models specifying additive genetic and unique environmental effects (AE models) were the most parsimonious models for each of the measures. Several of the measures showed moderate positive phenotypic intercorrelations, and all but one of these intercorrelations showed significant partial genetic underpinnings. Moreover, the bivariate biometric analyses indicated that the ACIPS-A also captures unique heritable variation. Thus, the ACIPS-A captures unique heritable contributions to social/interpersonal pleasure, as well as shared genetic variance with other measures of positive affectivity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akaike, H. (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika, 52, 317–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barkus, E., & Badcock, J. C. (2019). A transdiagnostic perspective on social anhedonia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, No. 216. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00216.

  • Bartels, M. (2015). Genetics of wellbeing and its components satisfaction with life, happiness, and quality of life: A review and meta-analysis of heritability studies. Behavior Genetics, 45, 137–156.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bartels, M., Savioul, V., de Moor, M. H. M., Willelmsen, A. H. M., van Beijsterveldt, C. E. M., Hottenga, J. J. J., de Geus, E. J. C., & Boomsma, D. I. (2010). Heritability and genome-wide linkage scan for subjective happiness. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 13(2), 135–142.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard, T. J. (2004). Genetic influence on human psychological traits: A survey. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(4), 148–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capaldi, D. M., & Rothbart, M. K. (1992). Development and validation of an early adolescent temperament measure. Journal of Early Adolescence, 12, 153–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & White, T. L. (1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 310–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casey, B. J., Jones, R. M., & Hareb, T. A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Annals of New York Academy of Science, 1124, 111–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catalano, L. T., Heerey, E. A., & Gold, J. M. (2018). The valuation of social rewards in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 127(6), 602–611.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chaplin, T. M., & Aldao, A. (2013). Gender differences in emotion expression in children: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 735–765.

  • Coffey, J. K., & Warren, M. T. (2020). Comparing adolescent positive affect and self-esteem as precursors to adult self-esteem and life satisfaction. Motivation and Emotion, 44, 707–718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, A., Gomez, R., & Aucote, H. (2007). The Behavioural Inhibition System and Behavioural Approach System (BIS/BAS) scales: Measurement and structural invariance across adults and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(7), 295–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crone, E. A., & Dahl, R. E. (2012). Understanding adolescence as a period of social-affective engagement and goal flexibility. Nature Neuroscience Reviews, 13, 636–650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danner, D. D., Snowdon, D. A., & Friesen, W. V. (2001). Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the Nun Study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(5), 804–813.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davey, C. G., Yücel, M., & Allen, N. B. (2008). The emergence of depression in adolescence: Development of the prefrontal cortex and the representation of reward. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 1–19.

  • Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dodell-Feder, D., & Germine, L. (2018). Epidemiological dimensions of social anhedonia. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(5), 735–743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckblad, M. L., Chapman, L. J., Chapman, J. P., & Mishlove, M. (1982). The Revised Social Anhedonia Scale. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin–Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, L. K., & Rothbart, M. K. (2001). Revision of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire. Poster presented at the 2001 biennial meeting of the Society of Research in Child Development. Minneapolis, MN.

  • Fonseca-Pedrero, E., Gooding, D. C., Ortuño-Sierra, J., Pflum, M. J., Paino, M., & Muñiz, J. (2016). Classifying risk status of non-clinical adolescents using psychometric indicators for psychosis spectrum disorders. Psychiatry Research, 243, 246–254.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fonseca-Pedrero, E., Muñiz, J., Lemos-Giráldez, S., Paino M., Villazón-García, U., (2010). ESQUIZO-Q: Cuestionario Oviedo para la Evaluación de la Esquizotipia [ESQUIZO-Q: Oviedo Questionnaire for Schizotypy Assessment]. TEA ediciones, Madrid.

  • Gard, D. E., Gard, M. G., Kring, A. M., & John, O. P. (2006). Anticipatory and consummatory components of the experience of pleasure: A scale development study. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 1086–1102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldsmith, H. H. (1991). A zygosity questionnaire for young twins: A research note. Behavior Genetics, 21(3), 257–269.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gooding, D. C. (2019). The transdiagnostic nature of social anhedonia: Review of recent research findings using the ACIPS. International Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health, 1, 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gooding, D. C., & Pflum, M. J. (2014a). The assessment of interpersonal pleasure: Introduction of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) and preliminary findings. Psychiatry Research, 215(1), 237–243.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gooding, D. C., & Pflum, M. J. (2014b). Further validation of the ACIPS as a measure of social hedonic response. Psychiatry Research, 215, 771–777.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gooding, D. C., Chan, R. C. K., Zhou, H.-Y., Li, Z., & Cheung, E. F. C. (2017). The indirect assessment of social anhedonia in Chinese adolescents: Preliminary findings. Psychiatry Research, 257, 418–423.

  • Gooding, D. C., Padrutt, E. R., & Pflum, M. J. (2017). The predictive value of the NEO-FFI items: Parsing the nature of social anhedonia using the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale and the ACIPS. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 147. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00147.

  • Gooding, D. C., Pflum, M. J., Fonseca-Pedrero, E., & Paino, M. (2016). Assessing social anhedonia in adolescence: The ACIPS-A in a community sample. European Psychiatry, 37, 49–55.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gooding, D. C., Winston, T. M., Pflum, M. J., & Burgin, C. J. (2015). Individual differences in hedonic experience: Further evidence for the construct validity of the ACIPS. Psychiatry Research, 229, 524–532.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, R. (2001). Psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1337–1345.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haworth, C. M., Carter, K., Eley, T. C., & Plomin, R. (2017). Understanding the genetic and environmental specificity and overlap between well-being and internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Developmental Science, 20, e12376. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haworth, C. M., Wright, M. M., Luciano, M., Martin, N. G., de Geus, E. J., van Beijsterveldt, C. E. M., Bartels, M., et al. (2010). The heritability of general cognitive ability increases linearly from childhood to young adulthood. Molecular Psychiatry, 15(11), 112–1120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Healey, K. L., Morgan, J., Musselman, S. C., Olino, T. M., & Forbes, E. E. (2014). Social anhedonia and medial prefrontal responses to mutual liking in late adolescents. Brain and Cognition, 89, 39–50.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Heininga, V. E., Van Roekel, E., Ahles, J. J., Oldehinkel, A. J., & Mezulis, A. H. (2017). Positive affective functioning in anhedonic individuals’ daily life anything but flat and blunted. Journal of Affective Disorders, 218, 437–445.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kendler, K., & Hewitt, J. (1992). The structure of self-report schizotypy in twins. Journal of Personality Disorders, 6, 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kovacs, M. (1992). Children’s Depression Inventory. New York: Multi-Health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kupferberg, A., Bicks, L., & Hasler, G. (2016). Social functioning in major depressive disorder. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 69, 313–332.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • La Greca, A. M., & Harrison, H. M. (2005). Adolescent peer relations, friendships, and romantic relationships: Do they predict social anxiety and depression? Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34(1), 49–61.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leventhal, A. M., Unger, J. B., Audrain-McGovern, J., Sussaman, S., Volk, H. E., & Strong, D. R. (2015). Measuring anhedonia in adolescents: A psychometric analysis. Journal of Personality Assessment, 97(5), 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linney, Y. M., Murray, R. M., Peters, E. R., MacDonald, A. M., Rijsdijk, F., & Sham, P. C. (2003). A quantitative genetic analysis of schizotypal personality traits. Psychological Medicine, 33, 803–816.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loehlin, J. C. (1996). The Cholesky approach: A cautionary note. Behavior Genetics, 26, 65–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02361160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7(3), 186–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, A. W., Pogue-Geile, M. F., Debski, T. T., & Manuck, S. (2001). Genetic and environmental influences on schizotypy: A community-based twin study. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 27(1), 47–58.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, N. G., Eaves, L. J., Kearsey, M. J., & Davies, P. (1978). The power of the classical twin study. Heredity, 40(1), 97–116.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mavioglu, Mavioglu, R. N., Boomsma, D. I., & Bartels, M. (2015). Causes of individual differences in adolescent optimism: A study in Dutch twins and their siblings. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 24, 1381–1388.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meehl, P. E. (1975). Hedonic capacity: Some conjectures. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 39, 295–307.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2010). Mplus User's Guide (7th ed.). Muthén & Muthén.

  • Neale, M. C., & Maes, H. H. M. (1998). Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

  • Nes, R. B., & Røysamb, E. (2015). The heritability of subjective well-being: Review and meta-analysis. In M. Pluess (Ed.), Genetics of psychological well-being (pp. 75–96). Oxford University Press.

  • Rado, S. (1956). Psychoanalysis of behavior: Collected papers. Grune & Stratton.

  • Rijsdijk, F. V. (2002). Analytic approaches to twin data using structural equation models. Briefings in Bioinformatics, 3, 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/3.2.119.

  • Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1087.

  • Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, N. L., Lemery-Chalfant, K., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2019). Wisconsin Twin Project overview: Temperament and affective neuroscience. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 22(6), 794–799. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2019.108.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, N. L., Van Hulle, C. A., Brooker, R. L., Meyer, L. R., Lemery-Chalfant, K., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2013). Wisconsin Twin Research: Early development, child psychopathology, autism, and sensory overresponsivity. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 16(01), 376–384.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snaith, R. P., Hamilton, M., Morley, S., Humayan, A., Hargreaves, D. Trigwell, P. (1995). A Scale for the Assessment of Hedonic Tone the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry 167(1):99–103.

  • Urosevic, S., Collins, P., Muetzel, R., Lim, K., & Luciana, M. (2012). Longitudinal change in Behavioral Approach System sensitivity and brain structures involved in reward processing during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 48(5), 1488–1500.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wahlstrom, D., White, T., & Luciana, M. (2010). Neurobehavioral evidence for changes in dopamine system activity during adolescence. Neuroscience Biobehavioral Reviews, 34, 631–648.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, D. M., Bell, M. R., Flores, C., Gulley, J. M., Willing, J., & Paul, M. R. (2017). Adolescence and reward: Making sense of neural and behavioral changes amid the chaos. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(45), 10855–10866.3.2.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D. (1988). Intraindividual and interindividual analyses of positive and negative affect: Their relation to health complaints, perceived stress, and daily activities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1020–1030.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg, A., Venables, N. C., Proudfit, G. H., & Patrick, C. J. (2015). Heritability of the neural response to emotional pictures: Evidence from ERPs in an adult twin sample. SCAN, 10, 424–434.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, Y., Plomin, R., & von Stumm, S. (2016). Heritability of intraindividual mean and variability of positive and negative affect: Genetic analysis of daily affect ratings over a month. Psychological Science, 27(12), 1611–1619.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1202 W. Johnson Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Diane C. Gooding, Mollie N. Moore, Madeline J. Pflum, Nicole L. Schmidt & H. Hill Goldsmith

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Diane C. Gooding

  3. Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Nicole L. Schmidt & H. Hill Goldsmith

Authors
  1. Diane C. Gooding
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mollie N. Moore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Madeline J. Pflum
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nicole L. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. H. Hill Goldsmith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Diane C. Gooding.

Ethics declarations

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the twin families for their participation and the Waisman Center for infrastructure support (P30 HD03352 and U54 HD090256). This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health (R01 MH059785 to Goldsmith & Lemery-Chalfant, R01 MH084051 to HHG) and Conte Neuroscience Centers (P50 MH0845051 and P50 MH100031).

Data Availability

Study data are available through the Mendeley Data Repository.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the Educational and Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Informed Consent

All participants gave their assent, and their parents provided their written informed consent.

Open Practices Statement

The deidentified data that were generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Mendeley data repository, DOI: 10.17632/fm5cb343cr.1.

The investigation and analyses described herein were not preregistered.

Additional information

Handling editor: Shigehiro Oishi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gooding, D.C., Moore, M.N., Pflum, M.J. et al. Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Positive Affect: Insights from Adolescent Twins. Affec Sci 2, 289–300 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00041-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00041-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation