UC Berkeley

We investigated the relationship between incongruent emotion experience (negative emotion reported in response to positive and neutral stimuli), state negative affect, and response inhibition (a facet of cognitive control) in people with and without schizophrenia. We also tested whether a positive mood induction (the Broad-Minded Affective Coping, or BMAC, procedure) would decrease state negative affect and subsequently decrease incongruent emotion experience in people with schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n=29) reported significantly more state and trait negative affect and more incongruent emotion experience in response to positive and neutral film clips compared to people without schizophrenia (n=26). The BMAC procedure increased positive affect but did not decrease negative affect in all participants nor did it influence reports of incongruent emotion experience in people with schizophrenia. State negative affect, but not response inhibition, predicted incongruent emotion experience in people with schizophrenia. These results indicate that incongruent emotion experience may reflect heightened state negative affect in people with schizophrenia that does not readily diminish in the face of positive experiences.