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Anxiety, Depression, and Explanation‐based Pessimism for Future Positive and Negative Events
Author(s) -
MacLeod Andrew K.,
Tata Philip,
Kentish John,
Carroll Frances,
Hunter Elaine
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0879
pISSN - 1063-3995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0879(199703)4:1<15::aid-cpp112>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - psychology , pessimism , depression (economics) , anxiety , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , keynesian economics , epistemology , philosophy , economics
A study is reported which examined pessimism about the future in anxiety and depression. Anxious patients ( N =20), depressed patients ( N =15) and controls who were either high in trait‐anxiety ( N =17) or low in trait‐anxiety ( N =16) were asked to estimate the likelihood of a range of future positive and negative events, and were also asked to provide explanations why these events would (pro reasons) or would not (con reasons) happen to them. Anxiety and depression were associated with judging negative events to be likely and positive events to be unlikely. These probability judgements were reflected in accessibility of reasons, where, compared with controls, anxious and depressed subjects gave more pro relative to con reasons for negative events and more con relative to pro reasons for positive events. Results are discussed in relation to the simulation heuristic (Kahneman and Tversky, 1982) and the possible differences in future‐directed thinking in anxiety and depression. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.