Flat affect and social skills in schizophrenia: evidence for their independence

Although flat affect and social skills deficits are generally considered to be distinct impairments in schizophrenia, flat affect is typically assessed via an interview - an inherently social context. To the extent that emotional expressivity is an important component of socially appropriate interaction, it is possible that schizophrenic patients' diminished expressiveness in a social situation is largely a function of their concurrent social skills deficit. In the present study, we examined the relation between social skills and flat affect by measuring flat affect in two contexts: during an interview (high social demand) and while participants watched emotional film clips alone (low social demand). Results showed that social skills were not significantly correlated with flat affect in either context, suggesting that the two constructs represent independent domains of functioning in schizophrenic patients.