title: Daily life evidence of environment-incongruent emotion in schizophrenia.
abstract: Researchers have recently hypothesized that negative emotion in positive situations may be one mechanism for understanding emotion dysfunction in schizophrenia. Using ecological momentary assessment, we examined the relationship between emotion experience and environmental context in the daily lives of participants with and without schizophrenia. Participants with (n=47) and without schizophrenia (n=41) were provided a cellular telephone and called four times a day for one week. During each call participants rated their emotion experiences, described their current activities, and rated enjoyment from those activities. In line with previous research, participants with schizophrenia reported higher negative emotion overall relative to participants without schizophrenia, but equivalent levels of positive emotion and activity enjoyment. In line with the environment-incongruent negative emotion hypothesis, participants with schizophrenia evidenced a weaker relationship between reported enjoyment of current activities and current negative emotion compared to participants without schizophrenia. In addition, lower neurocognition predicted this weak relationship between negative emotion and context in the schizophrenia group. These findings provide ecologically valid support for environment-incongruent negative emotion in schizophrenia, and suggest that people with schizophrenia with more impaired neurocognition may have more difficulties regulating negative emotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University; 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94138, USA. Electronic address: amy.sanchez@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Amy H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University; 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94138, USA. Electronic address: lmlavaysse@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lindsey M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Lavaysse
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University; 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94138, USA. Electronic address: jnm.starr@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jessica N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Starr
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University; 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94138, USA. Electronic address: dgard@sfsu.edu.
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Gard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059445:Anhedonia / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Anhedonia; Emotion regulation; Experience sampling method; Negative affect; Positive affect