Objective: 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.
Methods: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that the Turkish version of
the PLEX has good validity and reliability in patients diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
Keywords: Anhedonia, reliability, schizophrenia, validity