Which set represents common negative symptoms and their impact on functioning?

• A. Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech.
• B. Diminished emotional expression, avolition, alogia; they reduce motivation, social interaction, and daily functioning.
• C. Affective lability, hyperactivity, euphoria.
• D. Ideas of reference, suspiciousness, persecutory delusions.

Answer: (B)

The main concept being tested is recognizing negative symptoms of schizophrenia and how they affect daily functioning. Negative symptoms reflect reductions in normal functioning, not additions to experiences. The set that includes diminished emotional expression, avolition, and alogia best illustrates these deficits: blunted affect reduces outward emotional display, avolition lowers motivation and drive to start or sustain activities, and alogia limits verbal communication. Together, they significantly impair engagement in work, school, relationships, and self-care, leading to broad functional decline.

Other symptom clusters describe positive experiences like delusions or hallucinations or mood-related changes, which are not reductions in normal function. They don’t collectively demonstrate how negative symptoms directly degrade daily functioning as the chosen set does.