Emotional Experience and Expression in Schizophrenia and Depression

This chapter presents a study that replicated and extended the findings of Oltmanns et al. (1988). It investigates whether the impairment in emotional expression that was seen in the laboratory paradigm was specific to schizophrenia or whether similar deficits in emotional responsivity would also be found among persons with major depression. It also examines whether differences in the emotional responding of normal and different psychopathological groups would depend on how the emotional responses were elicited or measured. It also explores the relation between deficits in emotional expression and other facets of emotional disturbance such as anhedonia and depressed mood. The results suggest that schizophrenics and depressed subjects exhibit a variety of disturbances in emotional functioning, each of which may be influenced independently of one another. Furthermore, a study that provided behavioral evidence that individuals with major depressive disorder tend to be less happy and more angry than both schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric individuals is discussed.