Desired sadness, happiness, fear and calmness in depression: The potential roles of valence and arousal.

Abstract

Prior research has shown that clinically depressed individuals are somewhat more motivated to feel sadness and less motivated to feel happiness than nondepressed individuals are. However, what underlies these patterns is not yet clear, as people may be motivated to experience positive (vs. negative) valence, high (vs. low) arousal, or discrete emotions. To test these possibilities, we assessed the motivation to experience emotions that capture different combinations of positive and negative valence and high and low arousal (i.e., sadness, happiness, fear and calmness) in 36 clinically depressed and 36 nondepressed college students (76% females, M age = 24.5). We measured desired emotions by selections of emotional music clips and by the self-reported desirability of emotions. We found that both depressed and nondepressed individuals desired calmness the most across measures, and this desire was stronger among depressed individuals. We replicated prior findings, such that across measures, depressed individuals were relatively more motivated to feel sadness than nondepressed individuals were. Furthermore, whereas nondepressed individuals were motivated to listen to music clips and experience emotions that were positive (vs. negative) in valence, this was not necessarily the case among depressed individuals. Compared to nondepressed individuals, depressed individuals desired music that was relatively lower (vs. higher) in arousal, but reported a relatively stronger desire for negative (vs. positive) emotions. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding motivated emotion regulation in depression.

Choosing to avoid the positive? Emotion regulation strategy choice in depression.

“…Consistent with previous research on motivation for emotions in depression as a function of valence (Mizrahi Lakan, Millgram, & Tamir, 2022), items represented prototypical pleasant emotions characterized by low (i.e., calm) and high (i.e., happy) arousal, and prototypical unpleasant emotions characterized by low (i.e., sad) and high (i.e., anxious) arousal. Participants rated how much they wanted to feel happy and calm (e.g., “In the past 2 hr, how much did you want to feel happy?”; 1 = not at all , 9 = to a large extent ; ω Between = 0.85, ω Within = 0.63), and how much they wanted to feel sad and anxious (e.g., “In the past 2 hr, how much did you want to feel sad?”; 1 = not at all , 9 = to a large extent ; ω Between = 0.72, ω Within = 0.61) 6…”

Flexibility or instability? Emotion goal dynamics and mental health.

“…Related to this point, the present research targeted healthy individuals who generally did not want to experience intense unpleasant emotions. Future research should test whether the current findings replicate in unhealthy samples (e.g., those suffering from clinical disorders), where the mean levels of unpleasant emotion goals tend to be higher, in comparison (e.g., Millgram et al, 2015; Millgram, Joormann, et al, 2019; Millgram, Sheppes, et al, 2019; Mizrahi Lakan, Millgram, & Tamir, 2023). Furthermore, future research should directly test our interpretation of the results, as well as other potential interpretations.…”

“…Pursuing more pleasant emotion goals and less unpleasant emotion goals may be beneficial. For instance, the pursuit of more intense unpleasant emotionss and less intense pleasant emotions have been linked to depression (e.g., Millgram et al, 2015; Mizrahi Lakan, Millgram, & Tamir, 2023). Thus, a desire for more unpleasant emotions or less pleasant emotions, in general, is related to worse mental health.…”

The Emotional Burden of Loneliness and its Association with Mental Health Outcomes

“…Evaluations of valence (i.e., pleasantness vs. unpleasantness) and arousal (i.e., low intensity vs. high intensity) represent key components of affective experiences and can be particularly relevant and useful in understanding the emotional burden of loneliness and its association with mental health outcomes. Research has shown that valence and arousal can differentiate between different emotional experiences at a neural level [ 14 , 15 ], and predict different mental health outcomes [ 16 ]. For instance, people with depression process and respond to emotional stimuli different than people without depression, and emotional valence and arousal modulate this process [ 17 ].…”