Just teasing: a conceptual analysis and empirical review.

Drawing on E. Goffman's concepts of face and strategic interaction, the authors define a tease as a playful provocation in which one person comments on something relevant to the target. This approach encompasses the diverse behaviors labeled teasing, clarifies previous ambiguities, differentiates teasing from related practices, and suggests how teasing can lead to hostile or affiliative outcomes. The authors then integrate studies of the content of teasing. Studies indicate that norm violations and conflict prompt teasing. With development, children tease in playful ways, particularly around the ages of 11 and 12 years, and understand and enjoy teasing more. Finally, consistent with hypotheses concerning contextual variation in face concerns, teasing is more frequent and hostile when initiated by high-status and familiar others and men, although gender differences are smaller than assumed. The authors conclude by discussing how teasing varies according to individual differences and culture.

Flat affect in schizophrenia: a test of neuropsychological models.

This study evaluated the association between neuropsychological indices of frontal lobe and right hemisphere impairment and deficits in the expression of affect in schizophrenia. The advantages of the present study were that unmedicated schizophrenia patients were studied and relevant demographic characteristics were controlled. Furthermore, deficits in affective expression were assessed both in a clinical interview and in subjects' response to affect-eliciting films. Despite the fact that schizophrenia subjects demonstrated significantly higher clinical ratings of affective flattening and less facial expression while viewing films than demographically matched control subjects, neuropsychological performance was not consistently related to these expressive deficits. The results thus failed to support for the proposed neuropsychological models of affective deficits in schizophrenia. The characterization of flat affect as a purely emotional deficit is questioned, and limitations of current neuropsychological theories of emotional expression and neuropsychological methods to test these theories in the study of schizophrenia are discussed as relevant concerns for future research.

The role of gender differences in the reduction of etiologic heterogeneity in schizophrenia.

Recent research has shown a resurgence of interest in the study of gender differences in schizophrenia. Accumulated evidence suggests that, compared with women, men have a higher incidence of schizophrenia, earlier age of onset, poorer course and medication response, poorer premorbid social and intellectual functioning, fewer affective symptoms, lower family morbid risk of schizophrenia and affective disorders, more evidence of obstetric complications in their mothers, and greater structural brain abnormalities. The roles of estrogen, neurodevelopment, and family history of affective disorder are evaluated as co-contributors to the observed gender differences in schizophrenia. Particular emphasis is given to evaluating the hypothesis that men are more prone to a hypothesized poor-prognosis, neurodevelopmental subtype of schizophrenia, for which early environmental brain insults play an important etiologic role, whereas women may be more prone to a hypothesized good-prognosis, affective subtype that is genetically related to the affective disorders. This hypothesis is evaluated in terms of (a) its ability to account for gender differences in schizophrenia, (b) its ability to link differences in clinical presentation to proposed differences in etiology; and (c) its potential to generate testable predictions for future schizophrenia research.

Construct validity of negative symptoms: an empirical and conceptual review.

The construct validity of negative symptoms is reviewed, and findings on deficit negative symptoms are also incorporated. A valid negative symptom construct should: (a) have replicable relationships with observable phenomena and other constructs; (b) have good reliability, temporal stability, and homogeneity; and (c) predict prognosis and response to treatment, possess convergent and discriminant validity, and be useful to clinicians. Although a number of well-replicated findings provide support for the validity of the construct, modification is warranted. Specifically, the data suggest that there is a highly correlated set of negative symptoms, which includes flat affect, alogia, anhedonia, and avolition. Primary and enduring symptoms from this set have good predictive and discriminant validity and can be studied in the context of the deficit syndrome, as well as with current negative symptom rating scales. Future studies should examine whether deficit negative symptoms are better conceptualized as a dimension or a category, elucidate the relationship between deficit symptoms and additional clinical and behavioral variables (e.g., response to newer neuroleptic medications and diminished emotional responding), and explore differences between the pattern of correlates of deficit symptoms and those of the positive and thought disorder symptoms.

Do schizophrenic patients show a disjunctive relationship among expressive, experiential, and psychophysiological components of emotion?

Recent research has found a discrepancy between schizophrenic patients' outward expression of emotion and their reported emotional experience. In this study, which attempts to replicate and extend the findings of previous studies, participants with and without schizophrenia viewed emotional film clips while their facial expressions were videotaped and skin conductance was recorded. Participants also reported their subjective experience of emotion following each film. Those with schizophrenia were less facially expressive than controls during the emotional films and reported experiencing as much positive and negative emotion, replicating previous findings. Additionally, schizophrenic patients exhibited greater skin conductance reactivity to all films than controls. These findings suggest a disjunction among emotional response domains for schizophrenic patients; alternative explanations for the findings are considered as well as suggestions for future research.

More evidence for generalized poor performance in facial emotion perception in schizophrenia.

Previous studies showing that schizophrenic patients have a deficit in the ability to perceive facial expressions of emotion in others often have not used a differential deficit design and standardized measures of emotion perception. Using standardized and cross-validated measures in a differential deficit design, S. L. Kerr and J. M. Neale (1993) found no evidence for a deficit specific to emotion perception among unmedicated schizophrenic patients. The present study replicated and extended the findings of Kerr and Neale in a sample of medicated schizophrenic patients. Results showed that medicated patients performed more poorly than controls overall; however, they performed no worse on facial emotion perception tasks than on a matched control task. These findings support Kerr and Neale's conclusion that schizophrenic patients do not have a differential deficit in facial emotion perception ability. Future research should examine the nature of schizophrenic patients generalized poor performance on tests of facial emotion perception.

Flat affect in schizophrenia does not reflect diminished subjective experience of emotion.

Although accorded historical significance, affective features of schizophrenia have only begun to receive systematic empirical attention. Interestingly, both early psychopathology writers and more recent investigators have reported frequent discrepancies between schizophrenics' feelings and outward expressions of emotion. Using a more comprehensive assessment of emotion, the present study examines the relationship between emotional experience and expression in a sample of medication-free schizophrenics. Compared with their normal counterparts, schizophrenics were indeed much less facially expressive of both positive and negative emotions during emotion-eliciting films, yet they reported experiencing as much positive and negative emotion. Therefore, the blunted affect typical of some schizophrenics misrepresents their underlying emotional experience. Future research into an inhibition hypothesis is recommended.

Sex differences in emotion: expression, experience, and physiology.

Although previous studies of emotional responding have found that women are more emotionally expressive than men, it remains unclear whether men and women differ in other domains of emotional response. We assessed the expressive, experiential, and physiological emotional responses of men and women in 2 studies. In Study 1, undergraduates viewed emotional films. Compared with men, women were more expressive, did not differ in reports of experienced emotion, and demonstrated different patterns of skin conductance responding. In Study 2, undergraduate men and women viewed emotional films and completed self-report scales of expressivity, gender role characteristics, and family expressiveness. Results replicated those from Study 1, and gender role characteristics and family expressiveness moderated the relationship between sex and expressivity.

Individual differences in dispositional expressiveness: development and validation of the Emotional Expressivity Scale.

Although emotional expressivity figures prominently in several theories of psychological and physical functioning, limitations of currently available measurement techniques impede precise and economical testing of these theories. The 17-item Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES) was designed as a self-report measure of the extent to which people outwardly display their emotions. Reliability studies showed the EES to be an internally consistent and stable individual-difference measure. Validational studies established initial convergent and discriminant validities, a moderate relationship between self-rated and other-rated expression, and correspondence between self-report and laboratory-measured expressiveness using both college student and community populations. The potential for the EES to promote and integrate findings across diverse areas of research is discussed.

Who attains social status? Effects of personality and physical attractiveness in social groups.

One of the most important goals and outcomes of social life is to attain status in the groups to which we belong. Such face-to-face status is defined by the amount of respect, influence, and prominence each member enjoys in the eyes of the others. Three studies investigated personological determinants of status in social groups (fraternity, sorority, and dormitory), relating the Big Five personality traits and physical attractiveness to peer ratings of status. High Extraversion substantially predicted elevated status for both sexes. High Neuroticism, incompatible with male gender norms, predicted lower status in men. None of the other Big Five traits predicted status. These effects were independent of attractiveness, which predicted higher status only in men. Contrary to previous claims, women's status ordering was just as stable as men's but emerged later. Discussion focuses on personological pathways to attaining status and on potential mediators.

Emotional responding in deficit and non-deficit schizophrenia.

Although emotional dysfunction is presumed to be a central part of the deficit syndrome in schizophrenia, it has not yet been empirically investigated in deficit and non-deficit patients. Emotional responding was examined in 19 male deficit patients, 22 non-deficit patients, and 20 non-patient controls. Patients participated in a semi-structured clinical interview that included questions from the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome (SDS) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), and then were then categorized into deficit and non-deficit groups. In addition, all participants viewed emotional films while their facial expressions were videotaped and then completed self-reports of emotional experience following each film. As predicted, deficit patients were less expressive than non-deficit patients and controls across the films. Contrary to prediction, deficit patients did not report experiencing less emotion to the films than non-deficit patients or controls. Thus, a disjunction in emotional responding appeared to characterize deficit patients, who were less expressive than controls but did not report less emotional experience. Alternative explanations for the findings are considered as are directions for future research.

A multimethod, multichannel assessment of affective flattening in schizophrenia.

Flat affect was examined across multiple contexts (during interviews and emotional films), multiple channels of expression (facial and vocal), and different assessment techniques (clinical ratings, observational ratings of facial expression, and acoustic analyses) in 23 medication-free schizophrenic patients. Patients participated in three different interviews during which either clinical ratings were made or their voices were audiotaped for later acoustic analyses. Patients were also videotaped while they viewed positive and negative emotional films. The videotapes were then coded for the frequency, intensity, and duration of positive and negative facial expressions. Results indicated that general clinical ratings were related across different interviews. However, only those items specific to affective flattening bore significant relationships to vocal and facial expressiveness. Vocal expressiveness and negative facial expressiveness were related, but vocal expressiveness was not related to positive facial expressiveness.

Schizophrenic patients show facial reactions to emotional facial expressions.

Facial reactions in schizophrenic patients were assessed via electromyography (EMG) in response to pictures of facial expressions. Male patients and nonpatient controls viewed photographs of positive and negative facial expressions while EMG activity from the corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions was recorded. Both schizophrenic patients and controls exhibited greater zygomatic reactivity in response to positive pictures than in response to negative pictures and greater corrugator reactivity in response to negative pictures than in response to positive pictures. Schizophrenic patients exhibited greater corrugator reactivity than did nonpatient controls. Implications for understanding emotion expression and perception in schizophrenic patients are discussed.