Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS)

Forty true-or-false statements describe how much pleasure a person takes in being with others: whether being with friends is enjoyable or merely tolerable, whether sharing personal feelings feels rewarding, whether one would rather be alone than with people, and whether close relationships are important. A person high in social anhedonia is not necessarily anxious around others; rather, the rewards of company and intimacy are muted.

Eckblad, Chapman, Chapman and Mishlove (1982) revised the Social Anhedonia Scale in the Wisconsin research program on psychosis proneness, which followed Meehl (1962) in regarding reduced capacity for pleasure as a sign of vulnerability to schizophrenia. In a later follow-up, people with high social anhedonia were more likely than others to develop schizophrenia spectrum disorders (Kwapil, 1998).

Statements answered in the anhedonic direction are counted. Higher totals describe a more pronounced indifference to social rewards and a preference for solitude; lower totals describe ordinary enjoyment of company and closeness. A high score describes a disposition, not a disorder, and a preference for solitude can be entirely compatible with a satisfying life.

The scale is used in research on schizotypy, social functioning and depression, and in clinical assessment by professionals. On this site, the Isolation, Withdrawal, and Detachment Scale describes a broader pattern of isolation, withdrawal and detachment, the Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale describes reduced sensory pleasure, and the Need to Belong Scale measures the opposite motivation, the desire for connection.

In addition, the R-SAS was significantly associated with state anxiety (r =.41, p <.01) and state depression (r =.43, p <.01) as assessed by the SCL-90 (Bailey et al., 1993). However, Bailey et al. (1993) found that the R-SAS also was significantly associated with schizotypal anxiety, undermining its ability to discriminate schizoid and avoidant PDs. Importantly, Bailey et al. (1993) note that this finding indicates either a problem with the R-SAS or a problem with the DSM-III-R criteria for schizoid PD and avoidant PD. However, there is other evidence for the scale’s convergent validity. For example, Bailey et al. (1993) found that the R-SAS, in addition to its predicted links with schizoid PD and schizotypal PD given that these two disorders are characterized by social anhedonia in the DSM- III-R, was also significantly positively correlated with “the single borderline symptom of chronic feelings of emptiness and boredom” (Bailey et al., 1993, p. 129; cf.

DSM-III-R, APA, 1987).

“Having close friends is not as important as many people say.”

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Item responses are summed within each scale (reverse-keyed items recoded first) and expressed as a percent of the maximum possible score. No normative percentile is applied — there is no verbatim-matched published norm for this exact item set.