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The effect of a negative mood priming challenge on dysfunctional attitudes, explanatory style, and explanatory flexibility
Author(s) -
Fresco David M.,
Heimberg Richard G.,
Abramowitz Adrienne,
Bertram Tara L.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
british journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0144-6657
DOI - 10.1348/014466505x35137
Subject(s) - dysfunctional family , psychology , mood , cognitive flexibility , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , cognition , dysphoria , cognitive style , history of depression , priming (agriculture) , explanatory model , developmental psychology , psychiatry , anxiety , philosophy , epistemology , economics , macroeconomics , botany , germination , biology
Ninety‐seven undergraduates, 48 of whom had a history of self‐reported major depression, completed measures of mood and cognitive style (e.g. explanatory style, explanatory flexibility, dysfunctional attitudes) prior to and directly after a negative mood priming challenge that consisted of listening to sad music and thinking about an upsetting past event. Eighteen of the previously depressed participants endorsed baseline levels of depression, explanatory style for negative events, and dysfunctional attitudes higher than levels reported by never depressed participants or euthymic participants with a history of depression. All three groups (never depressed participants, dysphoric participants with a history of depression, euthymic participants with a history of depression) demonstrated increases in dysphoria and dysfunctional attitudes in response to the negative mood priming challenge. Dysphoric participants with a history of depression, but not the other two groups, evidenced modest increases in explanatory style following the negative mood priming challenge. Finally, euthymic participants with a history of depression, but not the other two groups, evidenced drops in explanatory flexibility. Findings from the present study suggest that the cognitive theories of depression may benefit from examining both cognitive content and cognitive flexibility when assessing risk for depression.