Judgment of emotion among chronic schizophrenics

Abstract

This study investigated accuracy of judgment as to posed facial expressions and nonverbal scenes of various emotions. Ss were 16 male and 16 female chronic schizophrenics and a normal control group of equal size and sex composition. The results revealed that normal Ss were significantly more accurate than schizophrenics in identifying emotions from both posed photographs of the face and nonverbal videotape scenes. S sex was not found to affect differentially the schizophrenic or normal Ss' response accuracy to both the photographs and videotapes. Further, it was observed that both groups' accuracy improved when given multiple-choice alternatives to select from as contrasted to their open-ended free responses; this was especially true for the schizophrenic group. Teaching patients to identify and practice expressing discrete emotions was suggested.