Implicit depression and hopelessness in remitted depressed individuals

Cognitive theories of depression posit that automatically activated cognitive schemas, including negative thoughts about the self and the future, predispose individuals to develop depressive disorders. However, prior research has largely examined these constructs using explicit tests in currently depressed individuals. Using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the present study examined automatic associations between the self and mood state ("depression IAT") and between the future and mood state ("hopelessness IAT") before and after a negative mood induction in 19 remitted depressed individuals and 23 healthy controls. In the depression IAT, remitted depressed participants exhibited an overall lower tendency to associate themselves with happiness relative to the healthy controls before the mood induction. Control, but not remitted depressed, participants' automatic associations between the self and happiness diminished following the mood induction. Contrary to our hypotheses, no significant findings emerged when considering the hopelessness IAT. Consistent with prior studies, no significant correlations emerged between implicit and explicit biases, suggesting that these measures probe different processes. Results extend prior IAT research by documenting the presence of a reduced tendency to associate the self with happiness in a sample at increased risk for depression.     

Autobiographical memory characteristics in depression vulnerability: Formerly depressed individuals recall less vivid positive memories

The differential activation hypothesis (DAH; Teasdale, 1988) proposes that individuals who are vulnerable to depression can be distinguished from non-vulnerable individuals by the degree to which negative thoughts and maladaptive cognitive processes are activated during sad mood. While retrieval of negative autobiographical memories is noted as one such process, the model does not articulate a role for deficits in recalling positive memories. Two studies were conducted to compare the autobiographical memory characteristics of never-depressed and formerly depressed individuals following a sad mood induction. In Study 1, features of negative memories of never-depressed and formerly depressed individuals did not differ, either in neutral or sad mood. For positive memories, groups did not differ in neutral mood, but following a sad mood induction, formerly depressed individuals rated their positive memories as less vivid than their never-depressed counterparts. Study 2 examined positive autobiographical memory features more comprehensively and replicated the finding that in a sad mood formerly depressed individuals recalled less vivid positive memories than never-depressed controls. These findings suggest that the phenomenological features of positive memories could represent an important factor in depressive vulnerability, and, more broadly, that depression may be associated with a deficit in the processing of positive material.     

Autobiographical memory characteristics in depression vulnerability: formerly depressed individuals recall less vivid positive memories

The differential activation hypothesis (DAH; Teasdale, 1988) proposes that individuals who are vulnerable to depression can be distinguished from non-vulnerable individuals by the degree to which negative thoughts and maladaptive cognitive processes are activated during sad mood. While retrieval of negative autobiographical memories is noted as one such process, the model does not articulate a role for deficits in recalling positive memories. Two studies were conducted to compare the autobiographical memory characteristics of never-depressed and formerly depressed individuals following a sad mood induction. In Study 1, features of negative memories of never-depressed and formerly depressed individuals did not differ, either in neutral or sad mood. For positive memories, groups did not differ in neutral mood, but following a sad mood induction, formerly depressed individuals rated their positive memories as less vivid than their never-depressed counterparts. Study 2 examined positive autobiographical memory features more comprehensively and replicated the finding that in a sad mood formerly depressed individuals recalled less vivid positive memories than never-depressed controls. These findings suggest that the phenomenological features of positive memories could represent an important factor in depressive vulnerability, and, more broadly, that depression may be associated with a deficit in the processing of positive material.     

Negative cognitive response to a sad mood induction: Associations with polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) gene

Increased negative thinking in response to sad mood states has been identified as a marker of depression risk. The present study examined whether polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) gene were associated with the tendency to endorse negative cognition after sad or neutral mood inductions in a healthy college student sample. Non-depressed participants were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR and then viewed films designed to elicit a sad mood (n=30) or a neutral mood (n=23). Analyses indicated that individuals homozygous for the short 5-HTTLPR allele endorsed more negative cognition following a sad mood induction than individuals homozygous for the long 5-HTTLPR allele. Negative cognition did not vary as a function of 5-HTTLPR genetic status in the neutral mood condition. These preliminary results suggest that genetic variation of the serotonin transporter may contribute to depression vulnerability via a tendency to think more negatively in response to events that elicit sad mood.     

Mood and memories of parental rearing styles: A comparison of mood effects on questionnaire-cued and free recall of autobiographical memories

The relationship between memories of childhood experiences (e.g., adverse parenting) and adult depression often found raises questions of interpretation. On the one hand, both laboratory studies and clinicians' experiences suggest that subjects in a depressed mood frequently show a negative bias in perceptions and memories. Negative childhood memories in depressed persons might, therefore, be interpreted as epiphenomena of depressed mood instead of etiological factors. On the other hand, memories of childhood experiences seem remarkably stable across changes in depressed mood, especially when memories are elicited by means of standardized questionnaires. In the mood and memory literature several explanations for this stability are offered. For one thing, highly structured cues to elicit memories (such as in questionnaires) are hypothesized to be less susceptible to mood bias than unstructured memory cues (such as in free recall procedures). On the other hand, resource allocation theorists suggest that childhood memories, being well established and rehearsed, are relatively impervious to mood bias no matter how they are elicited. In this study we examined whether different methods of eliciting childhood memories (i.e., free recall and questionnaire-cued) are differentially susceptible to mood bias. To this aim, we used a mood induction procedure to induce depressed, neutral, and elated mood and assessed childhood memories both before and after the mood induction using both questionnaires and free recall to elicit memories. Results suggested that memories elicited by means of free recall as well as by means of questionnaire-cued recall were susceptible to depressed and elated mood bias. The implications for research addressing the link between childhood experiences and depression are discussed.     

Effects of depressed mood on drinking refusal self-efficacy: examining the specificity of drinking contexts

College students with elevated depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in risky drinking and experience alcohol-related negative consequences. Efforts to understand the association between depressed mood and alcohol use have begun to identify the role of cognitive-motivational processes. Drinking refusal self-efficacy is one such process that influences the decision to drink, but its relationship with depressed mood remains unclear. The current study sought to clarify the role of these processes using a depressed mood induction procedure in a sample of college student drinkers. Eighty-six students were randomized to a depressed or neutral mood induction and completed assessments of drinking refusal self-efficacy. Depressed mood significantly decreased self-efficacy in high-risk drinking contexts related to depression, whereas ratings of other high-risk contexts were unaffected. These findings suggest that the association between hazardous drinking and depressed mood may be due in part to the direct influence of mood state on one's self-efficacy to resist drinking in relevant contexts.     

Mental state decoding in past major depression: Effect of sad versus happy mood induction

Individuals with mild depression show an enhanced ability to read or “decode” others' mental states. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether this pattern of performance is related specifically to the pathology of depression or whether it is simply a feature of the transient dysphoric state. Forty-one undergraduates with a previous episode of major depression and 52 undergraduates with no depression history participated in a mental state decoding task following a sad versus happy mood induction. Previously depressed participants were significantly more accurate in their mental state judgements than were the never-depressed participants, suggesting that enhanced mental state decoding may be a specific feature of depression in remission. Furthermore, previously depressed participants whose positive mood increased in response to the happy mood induction showed a poorer level of performance on the task, similar to that observed in the never-depressed group. Thus, a happy mood may have induced a somewhat less accurate, but perhaps more adaptive, approach to processing social information. These findings were robust after controlling for current level of depression and anxiety symptoms, intensity of response to the mood induction, response times, and performance on a control task.     

Effects of Depressed Mood on Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy: Examining the Specificity of Drinking Contexts

College students with elevated depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in risky drinking and experience alcohol-related negative consequences. Efforts to understand the association between depressed mood and alcohol use have begun to identify the role of cognitive-motivational processes. Drinking refusal self-efficacy is one such process that influences the decision to drink, but its relationship with depressed mood remains unclear. The current study sought to clarify the role of these processes using a depressed mood induction procedure in a sample of college student drinkers. Eighty-six students were randomized to a depressed or neutral mood induction and completed assessments of drinking refusal self-efficacy. Depressed mood significantly decreased self-efficacy in high-risk drinking contexts related to depression, whereas ratings of other high-risk contexts were unaffected. These findings suggest that the association between hazardous drinking and depressed mood may be due in part to the direct influence of mood state on one's self-efficacy to resist drinking in relevant contexts.     

Activation of latent self-schemas as a cognitive vulnerability factor for depression: The potential role of implicit self-esteem

To date, only two studies have investigated implicit self-esteem in depressed individuals. Surprisingly, both studies found evidence not in line with the cognitive theory of depression. We wanted to test whether these findings are replicable by investigating implicit self-esteem using the Implicit Association Test in currently depressed (CD), never depressed controls (ND), and formerly depressed individuals (FD). The latter two groups were tested before and after a negative mood induction. The results are in line with the previous two studies suggesting no difference in implicit self-esteem between CD patients and ND controls. Moreover, before mood induction, FD individuals evidenced a higher implicit self-esteem as compared to the two other groups. Compared to ND participants, FD individuals showed a significant drop in implicit self-esteem after the negative mood induction procedure, but this was due to the higher implicit self-esteem of FD before the mood induction. These results are discussed in the light of new perspectives on implicit self-esteem and depression.     

负性情境诱导下抑郁个体的情绪Stroop效应：ERPs研究

运用ERPs技术探讨了正常和抑郁个体在中性和负性情境诱导下的情绪Stroop效应。结果发现正常被试在负性情境下对中性词判断的错误率比在中性情境下更高,对负性词加工的P1波幅减小、N1增大,出现了Stroop效应;抑郁被试在两种情境下对负性词加工的P1和 N1波幅没有差异。研究结果提示,抑郁个体在负性情境下出现注意脱离困难和资源不足,难以解决情绪冲突任务,支持了注意脱离损伤假说,并进一步说明抑郁个体的情绪选择性注意加工会受到心境一致性状态的影响,因过多的注意资源卷入从而出现负性情绪调节不良。实验结果为探讨抑郁个体对负性情绪的注意加工和调节过程提供了来自电生理的证据。     

Interpretation of Ambiguous Information in Girls at Risk for Depression

Research has consistently documented that depressed individuals process information in a negatively biased manner. There is little evidence, however, concerning whether these biases represent risk factors for depression, as is hypothesized by cognitive models. In the present study we investigated whether a particular cognitive bias observed in currently depressed individuals, the tendency to interpret ambiguous information negatively, characterizes daughters of depressed mothers, a population known to be at increased risk for depression. Following a negative mood induction, young daughters of depressed and never-disordered mothers completed two information-processing tasks in which their interpretations of emotionally ambiguous stimuli were evaluated. Daughters of depressed mothers interpreted ambiguous words more negatively and less positively, and ambiguous stories more negatively, than did daughters of never-disordered mothers. These results provide support for cognitive vulnerability models of depression.     

Is retrieving positive self-concordant specific memory beneficial to mood repair? The moderation effect of depressive symptoms

The present study examined whether positive specific memory recall improves mood more than overgeneral memory recall. Moreover, this study examined the mood contrast effect in subclinically depressed participants. The mood contrast effect refers to when people ruminate on discrepancies between the current self and a past ideal self by recall of positive self-discrepant (low self-concordant) memories and thereby, fall into a negative mood. Undergraduate students (N?=?161) underwent a negative mood induction, and then concentrated on positive specific memory recall, positive overgeneral memory recall, or distraction. Results showed that there were no group differences in mood repair. Nevertheless, recalled memory self-concordance was associated with sad mood repair in the specific memory group, and moreover, this effect was not significant in people high in depressive symptoms. We discussed the results of mood repair effect from the perspective of baseline negative mood in subclinical depression.     

Self-report measures of defeat and entrapment during a brief depressive mood induction

Recent studies have reported that depression is strongly associated with perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and have proposed that such perceptions are central features of depression. This study used experimental mood induction procedures to investigate the putative causal relationship between perceptions of defeat/entrapment and depressed mood. Two groups of female undergraduate volunteers (n = 16) completed visual analogue mood scales, as well as Defeat and Entrapment scales, before and after either a negative or a positive musical mood induction procedure (MIP). Scores on the Defeat and Entrapment Scales were significantly correlated with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The negative MIP caused a worsening of mood and significantly increased perceptions of defeat and entrapment, particularly internal entrapment. The positive MIP caused a small but significant improvement in mood, and significantly decreased defeat scores. Individuals with elevated BDI or internal entrapment scores prior to the negative MIP showed the greatest increases in internal entrapment after the negative mood induction. The results demonstrate that induction of a depressed mood increases perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and suggest that, in the case of internal entrapment, this effect increases with the initial level of depression or entrapment.     

The Effects of Sad Mood on Reports of Parents’ Caregiving Behaviors

Two studies examined the hypothesis that recollections of parents’ child-rearing behaviors on the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI: Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979) are influenced by current mood. Study 1 investigated the effects of sad versus neutral mood induction on PBI scores in 50 college students. Participants rated their parents as less caring following the sad mood induction than following the neutral induction. Study 2 investigated the effects of naturally occurring changes in depressive symptoms on PBI scores over a two month period. Changes in depressive symptoms correlated with changes in father care scores and tended to correlate with changes in mother care scores. Findings from both studies suggest that retrospective reports of parenting are susceptible to mood bias and highlight the limits of using cross sectional designs to explore the relationship between parenting and depression.     

Mood repair and processing mode in depression

Recalling positive autobiographical memories is a powerful emotion regulation strategy that can be used to repair low mood and alleviate negative affect. Unlike healthy individuals, those with current or past depression do not experience an improvement in mood as a consequence of recalling positive memories. We tested whether differences in processing mode might account for this impairment. Following mood induction procedures designed to ensure equivalence of mood state, depressed (n = 35) and recovered depressed (n = 33) participants were instructed to recall a positive memory and focus on it while adopting either an abstract or a concrete mode of processing. Participants in the abstract processing condition experienced no change in mood, while those in the concrete processing condition showed improved mood after memory recall. This research illustrates that the process by which positive autobiographical memories are recalled is important in determining their emotional impact and suggests that psychological interventions for depression may be improved by explicitly targeting processing mode.     

Does negative mood influence self-report assessment of individual and relational measures? An experimental analysis

The present study was designed to test the influence of negative mood on the self-report of individual and relational correlates of depression and marital distress. The authors applied a combined experimental mood induction procedure, based on music, autobiographical recall, and environmental manipulation. Results showed that the mood manipulation was effective, and the depressed Mood Induction Procedure (MIP) and neutral MIP groups did not differ in their self-rated measures of the above-mentioned variables. In conclusion, the authors argue that these measures are generally insensitive to depressed mood, providing an important contribution to this literature.     

Happiness increases distraction by auditory deviant stimuli

Rare and unexpected changes (deviants) in an otherwise repeated stream of task‐irrelevant auditory distractors (standards) capture attention and impair behavioural performance in an ongoing visual task. Recent evidence indicates that this effect is increased by sadness in a task involving neutral stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that such effect may not be limited to negative emotions but reflect a general depletion of attentional resources by examining whether a positive emotion (happiness) would increase deviance distraction too. Prior to performing an auditory‐visual oddball task, happiness or a neutral mood was induced in participants by means of the exposure to music and the recollection of an autobiographical event. Results from the oddball task showed significantly larger deviance distraction following the induction of happiness. Interestingly, the small amount of distraction typically observed on the standard trial following a deviant trial (post‐deviance distraction) was not increased by happiness. We speculate that happiness might interfere with the disengagement of attention from the deviant sound back towards the target stimulus (through the depletion of cognitive resources and/or mind wandering) but help subsequent cognitive control to recover from distraction.     

An experimental investigation of the cognitive vulnerability to depression

The present study employed an experimental design, to examine the role of metacognitive processing in the prevention of relapse to depression. Eighty remitted depressed participants were randomly allocated to receive training in the metacognitive style of rumination, distraction, acceptance or no training control prior to a negative mood induction. Rumination prolonged the intensity of the negative mood consistent with no training, whereas both distraction and acceptance reduced the intensity of the negative mood. Changes in attitudes were only found in the acceptance condition, as participants in this condition reduced negative attitudes towards negative experiences. These results are consistent with information processing theory, and imply that acceptance-based preventative interventions may operate by both reducing the intensity of sad moods and altering one's attitudes towards temporary moments of sadness.     

Rumination, distraction, and mindful self-focus in depressed patients

Rumination has been proposed as a cognitive risk factor for the onset and maintenance of depression. In parallel, mindfulness interventions have shown to reduce the risk for recurrence of depressive episodes. This study aimed to investigate effects of short periods of induced rumination, distraction, and mindful self-focus on sad mood in depressed patients and to assess possible moderator effects of habitual variables on respective mood changes. Seventy-six depressed patients 3.5 years after discharge from inpatient treatment were subjected to negative mood induction and subsequently randomly assigned to a rumination, distraction, or mindful self-focus induction. Habitual aspects of rumination, distraction, and mindfulness were assessed by questionnaires. Compared to rumination, the induction of a mindful self-focus and of distraction showed clear beneficial effects on the course of negative mood. While habitual distraction predicted better mood outcomes across all conditions, patients high in habitual mindfulness tended to show stronger negative mood reduction specifically after the induction of a mindful self-focus. This study indicates that - similar to distraction - an experimentally induced mindful self-focus is able to reduce negative mood in depressed patients. Implications regarding possible subgroups of patients who might particularly benefit from mindfulness-based interventions are discussed.     

Mood and the self-reference bias in recall

Hypotheses linking a negative recall bias (or negative self-schema) with vulnerability to depression were tested using an experimental mood-induction task. Extent of bias in student subjects was found to be unstable over a 4-month period, but different measures of memory bias within one session were highly correlated. Marginally significant correlations in the expected direction were found between estimates of recall bias and mood state, whether measured at the same or at different times. Change in mood following induction did not relate to change in bias, suggesting that the observed differences in recall are not a simple function of transient mood state alone. Equally, the initial recall bias did not predict the extent of mood shift following induction, as would be expected if a negative self-schema determined ease of mood shift in a negative direction. However, significant correlations were found between negative recall bias and self-reported frequency and severity of depression, lending equivocal support to the negative self-schema model.