Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Form of the Pleasure Expectancies Scale in Patients with Schizophrenia

Recent studies have shown that anhedonia stems not so much from a reduced capacity to experience pleasure from rewards, but rather from impairments in anticipating future rewards. Therefore, there is a need for instruments that assess pleasure expectancies. The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Pleasure Expectancies Scale (PLEX), developed to evaluate pleasure-related expectancies, in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

This cross-sectional study included clinically stable patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who presented to the Manisa Mental Health and Diseases Hospital. Participants completed the semistructured Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS), the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), and the PLEX self-report scale. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed using data from 72 randomly selected participants, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted with 150 participants to test the model fit of the obtained factor structure. For discriminant validity, between-group comparisons and correlation analyses were performed. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, item–total correlations, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability. Analyses were performed using R 4.4.1.

Data from 222 participants were included in the construct validity, discriminant validity, and reliability analyses (46 women; mean age=43.93±9.87 years). Exploratory factor analysis revealed that a single factor explained 76% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated good model fit indices (CFI=0.98; TLI=0.97; RMSEA=0.041; SRMR=0, 02). In comparisons across gender, marital status, and employment status, PLEX total scores showed an opposite pattern to BNSS scores. Significant negative correlations were found between the PLEX total score and the BNSS motivation/pleasure subscale (r=-0.91, p <0.001) as well as the BNSS expression subscale (r=-0.46, p <0, 001). Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.957, and the ICC was 0.895.

The findings demonstrate that the Turkish version of the PLEX has good validity and reliability in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.