Cheryl barely talks. What symptom is she showing?

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Negative symptoms involve significant reductions and absences of typical behaviors, emotions, or motivations (Green, 2001). These symptoms signify a loss of normal functions and include diminished emotional expression, avolition, alogia, asociality, and anhedonia.

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Avolition is the loss of motivation to do self-directed, purposeful activities. This is applicable to basic tasks like bathing and grooming.

Avolition

Alogia

This symptom is characterized by a lack of emotional display through facial expressions, tone of voice, or body language, even in situations where showing emotion would be considered normal or expected.

Diminished Emotional Expression

Asociality is a negative symptom defined by social withdrawal and a disinterest in participating in social interactions with other people.

Asociality

Anhedonia is the inability to feel pleasure. Individuals with this symptom show little interest in activities that are typically considered enjoyable, such as hobbies, recreational pursuits, or sexual relations.

Anhedonia

A clinician is evaluating a patient who exhibits several behaviors. The patient speaks in a rambling, incoherent way and reports seeing insects on the walls that are not there. The patient's family also reports that the individual, who used to be an avid painter and socially active, now shows a complete lack of interest in painting, avoids friends, and displays very little emotional reaction to any event, whether happy or sad. Based on this description, which of the patient's behaviors is characteristic of a 'negative symptom'?

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