Read the passage and answer the question that follows:
Brijesh is 25 years old autorickshaw driver. He has continuous feelings of insecurity and believes that the police in the area is tracking and following him. The patrolling of the police makes him feel that they are monitoring his behaviour minutely. The intense anxiety about this is interfering with his work and relationship and his family and friends are all worried for him. Brijesh laughs abruptly and inappropriately and sometimes stops speaking mid sentence and stares into nothingness as he appears to see or hear something that is not present.
Identify which one of the following is not a positive symptom of Schizophrenia?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Avolition
Positive symptoms are excesses added to behaviour; negative symptoms are deficits.
Option (1) Delusion — Positive symptom (Incorrect). A delusion is a false belief firmly held on inadequate grounds, an addition to normal thinking.
Option (2) Hallucination — Positive symptom (Incorrect). Hallucinations are perceptions without external stimuli, also listed among the positive symptoms.
Option (3) Formal thought disorder — Positive symptom (Incorrect). Disorganised thinking and speech, such as loosening of associations and neologisms, is a positive symptom.
Option (4) Avolition — Negative symptom (Correct). Avolition is apathy and an inability to start or complete a course of action, the loss of volition listed among the negative symptoms.
NCERT (2025-26): “Symptoms of Schizophrenia … Positive symptoms are ‘pathological excesses’ or ‘bizarre additions’ to a person’s behaviour. Delusions, disorganised thinking and speech, heightened perception and hallucinations, and inappropriate affect are the ones most often found in schizophrenia.…” “Symptoms of Schizophrenia … Negative symptoms are ‘pathological deficits’ and include poverty of speech, blunted and flat affect, loss of volition, and social withdrawal. People with schizophrenia show alogia or poverty of speech, i.e. a reduction in speech and speech content. Many people with schizophrenia show less anger, sadness, joy, and other feelings than most people do. Thus they have blunted affect. Some show no emotions at all, a condition known as flat affect. Also patients with schizophrenia experience avolition, or apathy and an inability to start or complete a course of action.…” |