Depressed people are not less motivated by personal goals but are more pessimistic about attaining them.

Abstract

Despite its theoretical importance, personal goal motivation has rarely been examined in clinical depression. Here we investigate whether clinically depressed persons (n = 23) differ from never-depressed persons (n = 26) on number of freely generated approach and avoidance goals, appraisals of these goals, and reasons why these goals would and would not be achieved. Participants listed approach and avoidance goals separately and generated explanations for why they would (pro) and would not (con) achieve their most important approach and avoidance goals, before rating the importance, likelihood and perceived control of goal outcomes. Counter to hypothesis, depressed persons did not differ from neverdepressed controls on number of approach or avoidance goals, or on the perceived importance of these goals. However, compared to never-depressed controls, depressed individuals gave lower likelihood judgements for desirable approach goal outcomes, tended to give higher likelihood judgements for undesirable to-be-avoided goal outcomes, and gave lower ratings of their control over goal outcomes. Furthermore, although controls generated significantly more pro than con reasons for goal achievement, depressed participants did not.These results suggest that depressed persons do not lack valued goals but are more pessimistic about their likelihood, controllability and reasons for successful goal attainment.Personal goals systems and depression 3 Although goal dysregulation has been implicated in affective disorders (Johnson, Carver, & Fulford, 2010) and goal pursuit is considered to be central to human motivation (Klinger, 1977), goal-based perspectives on depression have received little attention. Goals provide meaning, purpose, and direction in life, as well as a framework for interpreting life experience (Schmuck & Sheldon, 2001). It remains unclear whether depression is characterized by a general deficit in goal motivation, or by a profile of decreased approach motivation and increased avoidance motivation. It is also unclear whether depression biases

Goal Fluency, Pessimism and Disengagement in Depression

“…Some studies show a deficit in approach goal motivation in depression [16] while others do not [17–18]. Findings supporting increased avoidance goal motivation in clinical depression are also mixed [19–20].…”

“…Findings supporting increased avoidance goal motivation in clinical depression are also mixed [19–20]. Many preliminary clinical studies have relied on small sample sizes with adequate power to detect large effect sizes only, thus limiting conclusions from null findings [17–18]. In this study, we recruited a larger sample to more adequately address Fowles’ hypothesis in the context of personal goals.…”

“…Faced with an unattainable goal, arguably the most adaptive response is to withdraw effort and commitment from it [10, 31], whereas continued pursuit of unattainable goals may reduce self-regulatory efficiency and increase risk of depression [17]. Researchers have hypothesized that both impaired goal disengagement and impaired ability to re-engage with new goals characterize depression [17, 32]. Furthermore, Wrosch, Amir and Miller [30] suggest that engagement with new goals may be compromised if an individual withdraws effort but remains committed to an unattainable goal.…”

“…Goal expectancy is central to motivation [33] and is proportional to the effort and commitment that an individual exerts towards achieving goals in the face of obstacles [10, 34]. Previous research has found that pessimism in depression extends to personal approach and avoidance goals [17]. Low expectancies generally accompany a disengagement tendency [10].…”

Expected Emotional Usefulness and Emotional Preference in Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder

“…According to the expectancy value model,16,17) self-efficacy is a significant driving component that motivates behavior. MDDs may believe that they are incompetent in attaining goals44) or in regulating useful emotions,45) which may hamper their contextual emotional preference (goal-directed behavior), even though they know that the behavior would be needed to achieve the goal. Future studies can investigate these factors in relation to emotional preference.…”