Social withdrawal in the sub-chronic phencyclidine (PCP) rat model, a behavioral correlate of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, is probably the most well-studied; yet, little is known about the altered psychological processes underlying this behavioral deficit. Despite the complex nature of social behavior, social interaction is indeed often simplified to a single readout parameter (e.g., total time spent in social interaction) that has limited explanatory power. Therefore, we developed a comprehensive ethogram of the social, as well as non-social (i.e., self-oriented behaviors and arena exploration), behaviors of both saline controls and PCP-treated rats (5 mg/kg, twice daily for 7 days, followed by a washout period) in the dyadic social interaction paradigm. Specifically, we defined 41 behaviors (or groups of behaviors), of which 27 are social behaviors clustered under the following categories: avoidance, risk assessment, approach, recognition, and contact. We combined this manual scoring (via ANY-maze) with the use of automated measurements (via Ethovision) for a detailed analysis. Despite 30-minute habituation to the arena the previous day, arena exploration behaviors were the most prevalent, accounting for around 70 % of the 10-minute test – with the remaining time split between self-oriented (7 %) and social (13 %) behaviors. Compared to saline controls, PCP-treated rats showed a reduction in time spent in some (e.g., following), but not all, social behaviors and an increase in arena exploration, including its center. Our data suggest that PCP-induced social withdrawal results from a shift of interest (toward the environment) and a reduced quality of social interaction.