Toward an Operational Definition of Anhedonia

Abstract

Systematic study of Rado's idea that anhedonia plays a central role in the development of schizophrenia has lagged for want of a suitable operational definition. Therefore, seven measures appearing to reflect anhedonia were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. The resulting varimax factors were named: Apathy vs Cheerfulness, defined by Psychotic Inpatient Profile and Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation items, Gurel's Goalless Apathy Scale and a Fun-seeking rating; and Apathy vs Energy, defined by Goalless Apathy, the Elgin Interests Scale, Fun-seeking, and a specially constructed MMPI scale. It is suggested that anhedonia might best be considered as a multivariate dimension but that, where a single definition is desired, the scales defining the second factor may be the most appropriate.

Anhedonia as a function of non-affective interpretation of ambiguous stimuli and threshold for affective and neutral stimuli

“…All were males with staff diagnoses of schizophrenia and no evidence of brain damage in their clinical files. The Ss were administered the Anhedonia Scale, a semi-structured interview described elsewhere (Watson, 1972a;Watson, Klett, & Lorei, 1970). They were split at the median Anhedonia score to produce high-and low-anhedonia halves.…”

Evidence for a dual-factor concept of psychopathological emotional deficit: Anhedonia and sensation-seeking

“…Because schizophrenics typically operate at a high level of autonomic arousal and, a t the same time, are anhedonic, it can be hypothesized that clinical anhedonia may be a function of low-sensationseeking needs that arise from a high level of autonomic stimulation. To explore this hypothesis the semi-structured Anhedonia Interview developed by Watson, Klett and Lorei (1970) and the five Zuckerman (1971) Sensation-Seeking scales were administered to patients in two studies. I n order to produce additional information on the correlates of sensation-seeking and anhedonia, the Ss in one of the investigations also were administered the MMPI.…”

Anhedonia in schizophrenia: Deficits in both motivation and hedonic capacity

“…Anhedonia is one of the core negative symptoms of schizophrenia and is traditionally defined as the inability to experience pleasure or reduced hedonic capacity (Watson and Klett, 1970;Snaith, 1993). Gard et al (2007) proposed that hedonic capacity can be separated into two components, namely anticipatory and consummatory pleasure.…”