Why “why” seems better than “how”. Processes underlining repetitive thinking in an Italian non-clinical sample

Given the evidence for the dysfunctional effects of rumination, the fundamental question remains: why depressed patients continue to ruminate over long periods of time? Watkins has shown that unconstructive repetitive thought is focused on “why”, aiming at detecting the personal reasons of negative events. This strategy leads people to find evaluative answers of personal inadequacy or negativity of the world. The research aims at (a) test the hypotheses that why RT is significantly correlated to negative mood, even when controlling for depressive symptoms; (b) test whether non-clinical participants really tend to prefer the “how” RT, when coping with an unexpected negative event of everyday life; this results would suggest that the “how” style is more functional than the “why” style; (c) exploring beliefs that may guide the choice between the “how” or the “why” modes; (d) investigate the influence of a previous choice on the subsequent thinking style. 212 participants have been recruited. We include questionnaires about rumination and depression and 8 vignette describing negative unexpected situations, followed by three tasks. The results confirm the detrimental role of why focused repetitive thinking on mood state and show a significant influence of a “why tendency”.