Response Styles to Positive Affect and Depression: Concurrent and Prospective Associations in a Community Sample

Abstract

We examined the concurrent and prospective relations between response styles to positive affect and depression in a community sample. Participants (n = 345) completed self-report measures of current and past depressive episodes, depressive symptoms, anhedonia, and responses to positive affect (including dampening and positive rumination) at two time points, with a 5-month interval. Higher levels of dampening responses to positive affect were related to higher concurrent levels of depressive symptoms. The tendency to positively ruminate on positive affect was negatively related to concurrent anhedonic symptoms. When controlling for current depressive symptomatology, formerly depressed individuals had a higher tendency to dampen positive affect than never-depressed controls, and did not differ from a currently depressed group. Dampening responses did not predict depressive symptoms prospectively, but lower levels of (self-focused) positive rumination did predict higher levels of future anhedonic symptoms. Results indicate that not only currently but also formerly depressed individuals engage in dysfunctional (dampening) strategies in response to positive affect. It is possible that currently as well as formerly depressed individuals might benefit from interventions that are directed at the remediation of disturbed regulation of positive affect. However, our prospective results make clear that more research is needed to examine the precise conditions under which dampening would be a detrimental (and positive rumination a beneficial) response style in the course of depression.

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel: Positive prospective mental imagery and optimism in depression

“…that positive prospective imagery vividness predicted future optimism, but not vice versa), the opposite direction of prediction was tested (cf. Nelis et al, 2015). We carried out an equivalent regression, but with PIT positive imagery vividness ratings at seven months as dependent variable.…”

“…We predicted that higher baseline positive prospective imagery vividness (PIT) would be associated with greater optimism seven months later (as indicated by higher scores on the LOT-R), even when controlling for baseline optimism scores and other relevant variables (cf. Kleim et al, 2014; Nelis et al, 2015). …”

A Self-Paced, Web-Based, Positive Emotion Skills Intervention for Reducing Symptoms of Depression: Protocol for Development and Pilot Testing of MARIGOLD (Preprint)

“…In fact, emerging evidence suggests that low positive emotion in particular plays a uniquely important role in predicting depressive symptomatology, independent of negative emotion [38][39][40][41]. For instance, low positive emotion has been found to prospectively predict the initial onset of a depressive episode [42], and the dampening of positive emotion has been linked with increased symptoms of depression [43][44][45][46]. These findings, together with a growing body of evidence highlighting the unique benefits of positive emotion for coping with negative life events more generally [47][48][49], suggest that increasing positive emotion is a promising pathway to target for reducing symptoms of depression.…”

Dampening Positive Affect and Neural Reward Responding in Healthy Children: Implications for Affective Inflexibility

“…Dampening positive affect is defined as the “tendency to respond to positive mood states with mental strategies to reduce the intensity and duration of the positive mood state” (Feldman, Joormann, & Johnson, 2008 p. 509). Dampening takes a “glass half empty” view of positive affect involving thoughts such as, “these feelings won’t last” or “I don’t deserve this.” Dampening is elevated in adult and youth community samples experiencing current depressive symptoms (Feldman et al, 2008; Nelis, Holmes, Palmieri, Bellelli, & Raes, 2015; Raes, Daems, Feldman, Johnson, & Van Gucht, 2009) and in depressed and remitted depressed adult patients (Nelis, Holmes, & Raes, 2015; Werner-Seidler, Banks, Dunn, & Moulds, 2013). However, findings are inconclusive as to whether dampening is a risk factor for depression given mixed findings related to the onset of depression in children and adults (Bijttebier, Raes, Vasey, & Feldman, 2012; Gilbert, Gruber, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2013; Nelis, Holmes, & Raes, 2015; Raes, Smets, Nelis, & Schoofs, 2012).…”