Self-reported pleasure experience and motivation in individuals with schizotypal personality disorders proneness

Abstract

Objectives: In our current research, 2 studies were conducted to investigate self-reported pleasure and approach motivation in individuals with schizotypal personality disorders (SPD) proneness. Methods: In Study 1,20 individuals with SPD proneness and 20 non-SPD-prone persons were included in the investigation. In Study 2,24 SPD-prone and 24 non-SPD-prone individuals took part in our research. In all these individuals, memory and perceptual probabilistic reward tasks, and self-report scales were administered to capture their approach motivation and pleasure experience, respectively. Results: In both of the 2 studies, individuals with SPD proneness demonstrated more problems with self-reported deficits in pleasure experience than those without SPD proneness. However, there was no difference in approach motivation performance between the groups in Study 1; in Study 2, those with higher levels of anhedonia demonstrated a tendency to even more motivated behaviour. Conclusions: Approach motivation might be intact in schizotypal-proneness persons, although they had more complaints about their hedonic capacity. © 2011 Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists.