This study examined the hypothesis that, in schizophrenia, elevated trait social anhedonia (SA) is a stable individual difference, whereas in depression, increased SA is a reflection of a current clinical state that will diminish with recovery. Differences in trait Negative Affect (NA) and Positive Affect (PA) were also examined. Individuals with schizophrenia (n = 55) and depression (n = 34) were evaluated at baseline during hospitalization and compared with nonpsychiatric control participants (n = 41). Participants were assessed again at a 1-year follow-up. At baseline, compared with control participants, individuals with schizophrenia and depression were both characterized by elevated SA, greater NA, and lower PA. In schizophrenic individuals, elevated SA remained stable over the follow-up. However, in recovered depressed patients, SA declined over the follow-up period. Group differences remained in NA and PA over the 1-year follow-up. These results support the view that elevated SA is enduring in schizophrenia but that elevated SA is transiently related to clinical status in depression.

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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.

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