Refining the Psychometric High-Risk Paradigm: Examining Negative Symptom Traits for the Identification of Schizotypy

Abstract

Research supports social anhedonia's significance as a schizotypy indicator. However, social anhedonia is only one of several negative symptoms demonstrating an important relationship with premorbid functioning, medication response, and prognosis in schizophrenia. Despite these findings, the psychometric assessment of schizophrenia has focused primarily on social anhedonia. Negative symptom research indicates that avolition, apathy, and diminished emotional expression might be useful to include as potential schizotypy indicators. This thesis examined the relationship between social anhedonia and other negative symptom-related traits, in a college sample using factor analysis and taxometric analyses. Social anhedonia loaded on the same factor as diminished emotional expression and (low) positive affect and this factor was independent of a factor comprised of positive symptom traits (perceptual aberrations and magical ideation). Despite the strong relationship between social anhedonia and the negative symptom traits, these other measures were not associated with the taxon identified by the RSAS.