Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2021

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts In Clinical Psychology Degree

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Yaroslavsky, Ilya

Second Advisor

Eric Allard, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Elizabeth Goncy, Ph.D.

Abstract

Depression is marked by depressive affects which consists of dysphoric mood reflected by increased levels of negative affect (NA), and anhedonia which is characterized by decreased positive affect (PA). The dysregulation of affective states that characterizes depressive disorders may reflect emotion regulation deficits. Prior work has frequently linked maladaptive responses with depression, while evidence linking adaptive responses and depression has been mixed. Additionally, emerging evidence has shown a degree of specificity between emotion regulation and affect. Therefore, the present study examined whether emotion regulation responses show specificity with NA and PA across 7-day and 12-month periods within a large sample of those with various depression histories. Community dwelling and undergraduate participants (N= 241) completed selfreport surveys to assess their trait emotion regulation tendencies, positive and negative affect, and a measure of their depression symptoms in-lab. They then engaged in a 7-day ecological momentary assessment protocol. Lastly, at 4-, 8-, and 12-months post-lab visit, participants completed self-report surveys to assess NA and PA over the past month. As expected, maladaptive responses significantly predicted increased NA and adaptive responses significantly predicted increased PA across all time points. Further, there was specificity as adaptive ER was more strongly linked to trait positive affect and maladaptive ER was more strongly linked to trait negative affect (p’s< .001). Results iii suggest specific ties across maladaptive responses and negative affect as well as adaptive responses and positive affect, though they may be different across measurement type.

Download
COinS