Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:31:08.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anhedonia and emotional responses to affect evoking stimuli

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Howard Berenbaum ,
Rebecca Snowhite  and
Thomas F. Oltmanns
Howard Berenbaum
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Indiana, USA
Rebecca Snowhite
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Indiana, USA
Thomas F. Oltmanns*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Indiana, USA
*
*Address for Correspondence: Dr Thomas F. Oltmanns, Department of Psychology, Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA 22903–2477, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether individuals with unusually high scores on the Scale for Physical Anhedonia (Chapman et al. 1976) would differ from average scorers in their emotional responses to affect-evoking stimuli. Ten male and ten female anhedonics, well as ten male and ten female control subjects, were each shown brief filmclips that were expected to elicit emotional responses. The subjects' facial expressions were videotaped while they watched the filmclips, and they also completed adjective checklists describing how they felt while watching them. The anhedonics and nonanhedonics did not differ in their self-reports of emotional experience, nor did they differ in their facial expressions of emotion while viewing the filmclips. Compared to men, women reported experiencing more emotion, and their facial expressions also indicated greater responsiveness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , August 1987 , pp. 677 - 684
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, R. & Taylor, M. A. (1978). A rating scale for emotional blunting. American Journal of Psychiatry 135, 226–229Google ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, N. C. (1979) Affective flattening and the criteria for schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 136, 944–947.Google ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, N. C. (1982). Negative symptoms in schizophrenia: definition and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry 39. 784–788.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleuler, E. (1950). Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias (Zinkin, J., trans). International Universities Press: New York: (Original work published 1911).Google Scholar
Brown, S. L., Sweeney, D R. & Schwartz, G. E (1979). Differences between self-reported and observed pleasure in depression and schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 167, 410–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buck, R., Miller, R. E. & Caul, W. F. (1974). Sex, personality and physiological variables in the communication of affect via facial expression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 30, 587–596.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chapman, L. J., Chapman, J. P. & Raulin, M L (1976). Scales for physical and social anhedonia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 85, 374–382CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chapman, L J., Edell, W. S. & Chapman, J. P. (1980). Physical anhedonia, perceptual aberration, and psychosis proneness. Schizophrenia Bulletin 6, 639–653CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. (1977). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioural Sciences Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Cook, M. & Simukonda, F. (1981). Anhedonia and schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 139, 523–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cupchik, G. C. & Poulos, C. X. (1984). Judgements of emotional intensity in self and others: the effects of stimulus context, sex and expressivity Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46, 431–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, P. & Fnesen, W. V. (1975). Unmasking the Face: A Guide to Recognizing Emotions from Facial Expressions. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.Google Scholar
Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V. & Ancoli, S. (1980). Facial signs of emotional experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 1125–1134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, T. E., Rifkin, A., Schaffer, C. & Walker, E. (1986). Facial discrimination and emotional recognition in schizophrenia and affective disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 43, 276–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grinker, R. R. & Holzman, P. S. (1973). Schizophrenic pathology in young adults. Archives of General Psychiatry 28, 168–175CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haberman, M. C., Chapman, L. J., Numbers, J. S. & McFall, R. M. (1979). Relation of social competence to scores on two scales of psychosis proneness. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 88, 675–677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrow, M., Grinker, R. R., Holzman, P. S.Kayton, L. (1977). Anhedonia and schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 134, 794–797.Google ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R E & Gourlay, J. (1970). The clinical distinction between the affective psychoses and schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 117, 261–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, R. A. & Roff, J. D. (1985). Affectivity in schizophrenia. In Controversies in Schizophrenia, (ed. Alpert, M.), pp. 280–313. Guilford: New York.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1971). Dementia Praecox and Paraphrema (Barclay, R. M., transl). Krieger: Huntington, New York. (Original work published 1919).Google Scholar
Lutzenberger, W., Elbert, T., Rockstroh, B, Birbaumer, N & Stegagno, L. (1981). Slow cortical potentials on subjects with high or low scores on a questionnaire measuring physical anhedonia and body image distortion. Psychophysiology 18, 371–380.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meehl, P. E. (1962). Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia. American Psychologist 17, 827–838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Numbers, J. S. & Chapman, L. J. (1982). Social deficits in hypothetically psychosis-prone college women. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 91, 255–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuck, J., Leventhal, D, Rothstein, H. & Irizarry, V. (1984). Physical anhedonia and schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 93, 342–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, G. E., Brown, S. L. & Ahern, G. L. (1980). Facial muscle patterning and subjective experience during affective imagery: sex differences. Psychophysiology 17, 75–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrout, P. E. & Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin 86, 420–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simons, R. F. (1982). Physical anhedonia and future psychopathology an electrocortical continuity? Psychophysiology 19, 433–441.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simons, R. F., MacMillan, F. W. III, & Ireland, F. B. (1982 a). Reaction-time crossover in preselected schizotypic subjects. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 91, 414–419.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simons, R. F., MacMillan, F. W. III, & Ireland, F. B. (1982 b). Anticipatory pleasure deficit in subjects reporting physical anhedonia: slow cortical evidence. Biological Psychology 14, 297–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, E., Marwit, S. J. & Emory, E. (1980). A cross-sectional study of emotion recognition in schizophrenics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 89, 428–436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zuckerman, M. & Lubin, B. (1965). Manual for the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. Educational and Industrial Testing Service: San Diego, CA.Google Scholar