The relative effects of abstract versus concrete thinking on decision-making in depression

PhDepression: Examining How Graduate Research and Teaching Affect Depression in Life Sciences PhD Students

“…Compared with conducting research, many participants reported that the concrete tasks associated with teaching undergraduates were helpful for their depression. This is supported by literature that illustrates that concrete thinking, as opposed to abstract thinking, can reduce difficulty making decisions in individuals with depression ( Dey et al. , 2018 ), presuming that teaching often requires more concrete thinking compared with research, which can be more abstract.…”

“…Compared with conducting research, many participants reported that the concrete tasks associated with teaching undergraduates were helpful for their depression. This is supported by literature that illustrates that concrete thinking, as opposed to abstract thinking, can reduce difficulty making decisions in individuals with depression (Dey et al, 2018), presuming that teaching often requires more concrete thinking compared with research, which can be more abstract. Additionally, cognitive-behavioral treatments for depression have demonstrated that developing concrete goals for completing tasks is helpful for individuals with depression (Detweiler-Bedell and Whisman, 2005), which aligns with graduate students' perceptions that having concrete goals for completing teaching tasks was particularly helpful for their depression.…”

Parental socioeconomic and psychological determinants of the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) vaccine uptake in children

“…Questionnaires were conducted for both parents during pregnancy and at the child’s ages of 4 and 8 months. Previous research has shown that decision-making can be difficult for persons who have depressive symptoms [7] . It could be assumed that vaccinations are easily missed if the parents have challenges in their personal life or family functioning.…”

“…Even though the source may be perceived as unreliable at the time of retrieving the information, people may later remember the message but not the source, and the perception of unreliability is lost [6] . The decision-making is a multi-factorial cognitive process and can be especially difficult for those with psychological stress or mental disorders [7] . Based on previous studies, the socioeconomic background of the family, and especially of the mother, increases the risk of not vaccinating the child [8] , [9] , [10] .…”

Flights and Perchings of the BrainMind: A Temporospatial Approach to Psychotherapy

“…This can take the form of reasons for and implications of a situation, and can include over-focusing on the meanings and consequences of one’s negative emotions. For example, abstract rumination can take the form of thoughts such as “what is wrong with me” and “why can’t I handle this better.” Dey et al (2018) examined the extent to which high dysphoric and low dysphoric individuals engaged in abstract thinking while completing a decision-making task, and found that high dysphoric participants demonstrated more abstract thinking and worse outcomes on decision-making measures before and after they made decisions about both personal and hypothetical scenarios. They also found an association between depressive symptoms and longer task completion time when these individuals engaged in abstract thinking, relative to concrete thinking.…”