title: Social Anhedonia Is Not Just Extreme Introversion: Empirical Evidence of Distinct Constructs.
abstract: Social anhedonia and introversion, two closely related constructs associated with decreased positive emotions and decreased sociability, are common in schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders. In light of a myriad of mixed findings regarding positive emotionality in anhedonia, there has been a call to reconceptualize "anhedonia." To clarify the nature of social anhedonia, we used confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the relationship between social anhedonia and introversion. Findings were consistent with the conceptualization of social anhedonia as a separate construct from introversion-the best fitting model was one in which social anhedonia and introversion measures loaded separately. Also consistent with the conceptualization of social anhedonia as separate, we found evidence that it was associated with aspects of alexithymia above and beyond any relationship with introversion. Overall, these results have implications for the understanding of social anhedonia and for the use of it as a discriminating factor between personality disorders characterized by introversion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Cicero
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Drew H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri.
authors.forename: Nicole R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Karcher
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Kerns
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D059445:Anhedonia; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D008297:Male; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior