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Negative symptoms have clear functional implications in schizophrenia and are typically unresponsive to current treatments. The cognitive model of negative symptoms suggests that dysfunctional beliefs are influential in the development and maintenance of negative symptoms and schizophrenia. The current study reports on a preliminary investigation of a new measure of Negative Expectancy Appraisals (specifically beliefs about limited probability of success and perception of limited cognitive resources), and also evaluates whether dysfunctional beliefs are more closely linked to particular subdomains of negative symptoms. Sixty two individuals with schizophrenia completed measures of dysfunctional beliefs and were rated on negative symptoms. Analyses indicated that the endorsement of beliefs regarding low expectations for success and perception of limited resources (Negative Expectancy Appraisals) are robustly associated with diminished experience negative symptoms (avolition, asociality, and anhedonia), but are not associated with negative symptoms reflecting diminished expressivity (blunted affect, alogia). Similarly, Defeatist Performance Beliefs are modestly related to diminished experience, but not diminished expression, negative symptoms. Negative Expectancy Appraisals were also robustly linked to depressive symptoms. Results from the current study provide evidence that dysfunctional beliefs are clearly relevant to consider in relation to negative symptoms, and may represent a fruitful treatment target., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Social anhedonia has been employed in psychometric high-risk studies to identify putative schizotypes. To date, this research has focused almost exclusively on college samples. The current study sought to examine the validity of social anhedonia as an indicator of risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders within a community sample. Furthermore, we evaluated the role of other individual difference variables in accounting for variable clinical severity within the social anhedonia group including trait affectivity, social support, and family environment. Following the mailed questionnaire screening of 2434 eighteen-year olds, laboratory assessments were conducted with individuals identified as being high in social anhedonia (n=86) and a comparison sample (n=89). Compared with the control group, individuals in the social anhedonia group were found to have higher rates of mood disorders, elevated schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorder characteristics, greater negative symptom characteristics, and lower global functioning. Individuals within the social anhedonia group also reported greater trait negative affectivity, lower positive affectivity, less social support, and more family conflict. Low social support and problematic family environment were found to be related to elevations in spectrum personality disorder characteristics and poorer functioning within the social anhedonia group. These cross-sectional findings from a community sample provide further support for social anhedonia as a possible indicator of schizotypy., (© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved.)

This article reviews empirical studies of affective traits in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, population-based investigations of vulnerability to psychosis, and genetic and psychometric high-risk samples. The review focuses on studies that use self-report trait questionnaires to assess Negative Affectivity (NA) and Positive Affectivity (PA), which are conceptualized in contemporary models of personality as broad, temperamentally-based dispositions to experience corresponding emotional states. Individuals with schizophrenia report a pattern of stably elevated NA and low PA throughout the illness course. Among affected individuals, these traits are associated with variability in several clinically important features, including functional outcome, quality of life, and stress reactivity. Furthermore, evidence that elevated NA and low PA (particularly the facet of anhedonia) predict the development of psychosis and are detectable in high-risk samples suggests that these traits play a role in vulnerability to schizophrenia, though they are implicated in other forms of psychopathology as well. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for treatment, etiological models, and future research to advance the study of affective traits in schizophrenia and schizotypy.

While social anhedonia is a promising indicator of vulnerability to schizophrenia, it remains uncertain whether anhedonia is a core feature of schizotypy or merely a secondary associated characteristic. This issue was examined by comparing dimensional scores on schizophrenia spectrum personality disorder symptoms derived from clinical interviews among three groups: a) "pure" social anhedonics with high scores on the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (SAS; [Eckblad, M.L., Chapman, L.J., Chapman, J.P., Mishlove, M., 1982. The Revised Social Anhedonia Scale. Unpublished test, University of Wisconsin, Madison.]) and low scores on the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS, [Eckblad, M.L., Chapman, L.J., 1983. Magical ideation as an indicator of schizotypy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 215-225.]), b) subjects with high MIS and low SAS scores, and c) controls with low scores on both scales. This study also sought to identify individual differences in stress reactivity, personality, coping style, and social support that might be related to severity of clinical symptoms among at-risk subjects. Compared to controls, the SAS group had higher levels of schizotypal, schizoid, and paranoid symptoms and the MIS group had higher schizotypal symptoms. Among social anhedonics, individual differences in perceived stress, trait negative affectivity, and coping style accounted for over 40% of the variance in schizotypal and paranoid symptoms. This cross-sectional study bolsters support for the validity of social anhedonia as a primary feature of schizotypy. Longitudinal studies are required to determine whether these individual differences potentiate clinical outcomes among social anhedonics.

Social anhedonia has shown promise as a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia-spectrum pathology. Validity data have come, in part, from findings indicating that cognitive deficits occurring in schizophrenia are also evident in individuals with elevated levels of social anhedonia. However, prior research on this topic has been limited because it has been based almost exclusively on the study of selective samples of college students. The present article reports baseline findings of neuropsychological functioning in social anhedonics and controls from a representative community sample. Data on a wide array of neuropsychological abilities from 18-19 year-old participants with (n = 85) vs. without (n = 87) elevated levels of social anhedonia were analyzed. We hypothesized that, compared to controls, social anhedonics would show impairments in memory and sustained attention. Additionally, we sought to determine if more severe cognitive impairment in anhedonics was associated with greater schizophrenia-spectrum pathology and poorer overall functioning. Compared to controls, socially anhedonic participants performed more poorly on two visual-spatial memory tasks and a test of visual-spatial construction. The groups did not statistically differ on any of the other neuropsychological measures including general cognitive ability and sustained attention. Group differences were not the result of depression, bipolar or substance abuse disorders. Neuropsychological functioning showed little relationship to current clinical symptoms and functioning. Longitudinal assessment of these participants as they move through the risk period should provide important insights into the neuropsychological correlates of the schizophrenia prodrome.

This study sought to examine the relationship between symptomatology and the affect expressed between individuals with schizophrenia and their family members. It was hypothesized that, because of their impact on patient social behavior and potential burden on relatives, greater negative symptoms would be associated with less emotional expression in patients but would be related to the greater expression of negative emotions in their relatives within a problem-solving discussion. Informed by research on the structure of emotion, a broad assessment of affect, including Negativity, Positivity, and Disengagement, was utilized to examine affect expressed by patients with schizophrenic disorders (N=91) and their family members during videotaped problem-solving discussions. Although individuals with schizophrenia were comparable to their family members in displays of Negativity, patients displayed less Positivity and greater Disengagement. Greater negative symptoms (in particular blunted or flat affect) were related to a general diminution of affective expression in the schizophrenia group. However, negative symptoms were unrelated to the emotional expression of family members. Other symptoms such as thought disorder and mood symptoms of anxiety, depression, and hostility were not related to displays of affect by either patients or their family members. The findings indicate the importance of examining domains of affect other than negativity and demonstrate that negative symptoms are related to interpersonal displays of affect in schizophrenia. Additionally, these results suggest that schizophrenic symptoms, by themselves, may contribute little to the conflict between patients and their family members., (Copyright 2003 Elsevier B.V.)

Substance use disorders occur in approximately 40 to 50% of individuals with schizophrenia. Clinically, substance use disorders are associated with a variety of negative outcomes in schizophrenia, including incarceration, homelessness, violence, and suicide. An understanding of the reasons for such high rates of substance use disorders may yield insights into the treatment of this comorbidity in schizophrenia. This review summarizes methodological and conceptual issues concerning the study of substance use disorders in schizophrenia and provides a review of the prevalence of this co-occurrence. Prevailing theories regarding the co-occurrence of schizophrenia and substance use disorders are reviewed. Little empirical support is found for models suggesting that schizophrenic symptoms lead to substance use (self-medication), that substance use leads to schizophrenia, or that there is a genetic relationship between schizophrenia and substance use. An integrative affect-regulation model incorporating individual differences in traits and responses to stress is proposed for future study.

P. E. Meehl (1962) originally conjectured that hedonic capacity was an indicator of the latent class or taxon of schizotypy. However, P. E. Meehl (1989, 1990) subsequently diminished the role of hedonic capacity in his theory, indicating that hypohedonia is one of a dozen normal-range (nontaxonic) individual-differences factors that may potentiate the expression of schizophrenia. This dimensional-only view of hedonic capacity was tested by applying taxometric procedures to the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS; M. L. Eckblad, L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. Mishlove, 1982) in a sample of college students (N = 1,526). Analyses indicated that the construct measured by the RSAS is taxonic in nature with a base rate approximating .10. These data are interpreted in the context of other findings suggesting that social anhedonia is an indicator of schizotypy.

Comorbid substance use disorders occur frequently in schizophrenia with significant detrimental effects to clinical outcome. Unfortunately, attempts to identify factors associated with comorbid substance use disorders (beyond demographic characteristics such as gender) have not been successful. This study examined an affect regulation model of comorbid substance use in schizophrenia with a focus on personality traits and coping. It was hypothesized that maladaptive coping and the traits of negative affect (NA) and disinhibition (DIS), but not trait positive affect (PA), would be associated with greater substance use problems. Thirty-nine patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder completed measures of personality traits, coping, and negative consequences associated with substance use. Traits were differentially associated with coping in that NA and DIS, but not PA, were associated with maladaptive coping including the use of drugs and alcohol to cope with stress. Alternatively, PA, but not DIS or NA, was related to adaptive coping strategies. Individuals high in NA and endorsing the use of drugs and alcohol to cope reported the greatest number of negative consequences from substance use. This finding held after controlling for gender. These results are consistent with an affect regulation model of substance use and suggest the advantage of examining the role of affect, traits, and coping in understanding comorbid substance use in schizophrenia.

This study examines the relationship between anhedonia and the trait dimensions of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) in schizophrenia. The relationship between poor social functioning in schizophrenia and these individual differences in affectivity is also examined. Schizophrenia outpatients (n = 37) and normal controls (n = 15) were assessed at a baseline evaluation and again approximately 90 days later. Consistent with the hypothesized decrease in hedonic capacity in schizophrenia, patients reported significantly greater physical and social anhedonia and less PA than controls. However, the schizophrenia group also reported significantly greater NA and social anxiety than did controls. In support of the dispositional view of these individual differences in affectivity, trait measures demonstrated test-retest reliability, and group differences between the schizophrenia group and controls were stable over the 90-day followup period. Within the schizophrenia group, physical and social anhedonia were comparably negatively correlated with trait PA; however, social but not physical anhedonia was significantly positively correlated with NA and social anxiety. Poor social functioning in the schizophrenia group was associated with greater physical and social anhedonia and greater NA and social anxiety. Alternatively, greater trait PA was related to better social functioning. These findings indicate that schizophrenia is characterized by both low PA and elevated NA and that these affective characteristics are a stable feature of the illness. The results also suggest important links between affect and social functioning in schizophrenia.

The results of three studies of affect recognition in schizophrenia, all using the same measures (the Face Emotion Identification Test, the Face Emotion Discrimination Test, and the Test of Facial Recognition), are reviewed. The studies differed on two important subject characteristics: patient chronicity and medication status. One study examined chronically ill, unmedicated patients (Kerr and Neale 1993); a second study included chronically ill, medicated patients (Mueser et al. 1996); and a third study examined acutely ill, medicated patients (Bellack, Blanchard and Mueser 1996). Results across the three studies suggest that chronicity of the illness, but not medication status, was related to poor performance on the affect recognition tests. Furthermore, chronically ill patients tended to perform poorly on the control task (the Test of Facial Recognition) as well as the affect perception tasks, suggesting a generalized impairment in facial perception. The implications of the findings for research on social perception are considered, as well as for interventions designed to improve social competence in schizophrenia.

This study evaluated (a) whether chronic, medicated schizophrenia patients show deficits in emotion recognition compared to nonpatients, and (b) whether deficits in emotion recognition are related to poorer social competence. Two emotion recognition tests developed by S. L. Kerr and J. M. Neale (1993) and Benton's Test of Facial Recognition (A. Benton, M. VanAllen, K. Hamsher, & H. Levin, 1978) were given to patients with chronic schizophrenia and nonpatient controls. Patients' social skills, social adjustment, and symptomatology were assessed. Like Kerr and Neale's unmedicated patients, these patients performed worse than controls on both emotion recognition tests and the control test. For patients, facial perception was related to the chronicity of illness and social competence. Chronicity of illness may contribute to face perception deficits in schizophrenia, which may affect social competence.

This study examined affect perception in schizophrenia. Subjects were 35 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, 11 with bipolar disorder, and 19 matched nonpatient controls. All patients were in the latter stages of an acute hospitalization. Measures included a videotaped test of affect perception administered with and without sound, two tests of facial affect perception based on photographs, and two measures of nonaffect perception. The patient groups did not differ from one another on any of the affect perception measures, and few differences occurred between schizophrenia patients and nonpatient controls. Affect perception in schizophrenia patients was not correlated with symptomatology or history of illness, and there were no gender differences. Deficits reported in prior studies may reflect limitations in the assessment methodology commonly employed.