Define inappropriate affect in mental health?

Incongruency: An inappropriate affect generally refers to a patient who demonstrates facial expressions, tone of voice, and demeanor which is inconsistent with what they are telling you. For example, someone is telling you about something very sad or disturbing but they have a lilt to their voice and are smiling and maybe even laughing as they relate the information.

Incongruent: Affect is the expression of emotion or feelings displayed to others through facial expressions, hand gestures, voice tone, and other behaviors such as laughter or tears. “inappropriate affect” refers to the outward display of emotions being out of context for the situation, such as laughter while describing pain or sadness.

Negative affects: A person's affect is the expression of emotion or feelings displayed to others through facial expressions, hand gestures, voice tone, and other emotional signs --laughter or tears. Individual affect fluctuates according to emotional state. Inappropriate affect show little outward response environments or interactions, or a narrow range of emotions to the outside world. flat affect where the voice is monotone, the face expressionless, and the body immobile. Labile affect describes emotional instability or dramatic mood swings. When the outward display of emotion is out of context for the situation, such as laughter while describing pain or sadness, the affect is termed "inappropriate." Read more: http://www.minddisorders.com/A-Br/Affect.html#ixzz36aZMEmRD