In the DSM-4 under disorganized schizophrenia, what does the symptom "flat or inappropriate affect" mean

Question

doing a paper on disorganized schiz...i dont understand that symptom.

Answer 1

It means the person is not showing emotion or his/her mood is not correct for the current situation.

Answer 2

Flat Affect - this actually refers to someone who shows no emotions. It's used for persons who are schizophrenic and they just are like a flat piece of paper. Their voices don't change pitch or tone, they don't smile, they don't respond to a joke....there's nothing.

This is different from blunted affect, which is what you would call someone who has depression and just is sad and therefore doesn't smile as much. They still have emotions on their face but it's just reduced.

Inappropriate affect - when someone is happy but they are crying. They are saying they are being nice, yet they are yelling and screaming. Their affect does not correlate with what they are saying or the situation.

sometimes it's hard to know the difference between flat and blunted affect. They way to think of the difference is if someone has flat affect it's usually because they are psychotic or delusional....blunted is more related to the mood disorders.

Answer 3

Easy: A normal person has mood swings, can feel sad because of something, but someone notices and cheers him or her up, etc etc.

Flat or inappropriate affect means your feelings do not swing to suit the new situation, whatever happens you don't react at all or you act in a not socially acceptable way.

Answer 4

"flat or inappropriate affect"

examples:

If you were talking to someone and they were saying words that described the prettiest scenery every known, with vivid colors, etc., but there was no emotion in their voice, not movement of hands, no smile on their face- that is "flat affect".

Same scenery being described, but the face showed a frown, slouched posture, a big groan, - that is "inappropriate affect".

Answer 5

flat affect = no emotions, no happiness, no sadness, no anger

inappropriate affect means the emotions don't match the situation. becoming angry at someone for doing something nice is one example.

good luck with your paper.

Answer 6

Flat Or Inappropriate Affect

Answer 7

Flat or no emotion in speech or body language.

Answer 8

um, could it mean, like, emotion-less I think?

You could try, just on Google, there are lots of sites you will find, about mental disorders and explaining about them and, yeah, lots about them anyway lol =]