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Reasons for Living: Mood Effects Revisited 1
Author(s) -
Turzo Arleen P.,
Range Lillian M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1991.tb00464.x
Subject(s) - psychology , feeling , mood , depressed mood , cognition , clinical psychology , affect (linguistics) , coping (psychology) , social psychology , psychiatry , communication
To explore the relationship between mood and cognitive restraints to suicide, 98 undergraduates experienced the Velten mood‐induction procedure to induce an elated, depressed, or neutral (unchanged) mood. They then completed the Multiple Adjective Affect Checklist, the Coopersmith Self‐Esteem Inventory, and the Reasons for Living Inventory. Surprisingly, compared to neutral students, depressed students reported more overall reasons for living, greater feelings of responsibility to family, and more moral objections to suicide, and elated students reported more feelings of responsibility to family. Most responsive depressed students also had higher fear of suicide than others, and most responsive elated students had higher survival and coping beliefs than others. Results suggest that a mildly depressed mood caused students' increased reliance on cognitive beliefs about not committing suicide, and may indicate that mildly depressed persons might benefit from and be particularly receptive to cognitive interventions stressing beliefs about family and religious commitments.