Association of Reactivity of Explanatory Flexibility and Ruminative Brooding in a Mood-Priming Paradigm to Depressive Symptoms: Six Month Follow-Up
Michael T. Moore & David M. Fresco, Kent State University
INTRODUCTION
A preliminary version of the current study (Fresco et al., 2003)
examined the effects of an emotion evocation challenge on these two
constructs before and immediately after mood induction and six weeks
later. The sample consisted of 59 college students, 18 of whom met
diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety
disorder. Findings revealed that mood reactivity irrespective of diagnostic
status was associated with reduced explanatory flexibility but not with
higher brooding scores following the emotion evocation challenge.
Rather, brooding scores remained stable as a function of the mood
priming challenge. Further, residual change in explanatory flexibility and
post-induction brooding significantly predicted subsequent levels of
depression symptoms. Also, residual change in explanatory flexibility
moderated the association of intervening negative life events and
subsequent depression.
20
METHODS
Participants
• 59 undergraduate students
• 31% male, 69% female
• Participants ranged from 18-29 years of age (M = 19.23, SD = 1.73)
Measures
•Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson, et al., 1982)
•Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979)
•Life Experiences Survey (LES; Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978)
•Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991)
APV of Post Induction Brooding and Time 3 Life Stress
18
16
Predicted T3 Depression
Depressive rumination is the tendency to focus attention
perseveratively on the causes, experience, and consequences of
depressed mood and has been associated with the onset (Just & Alloy,
1997), course (Kuehner & Weber, 1999), and duration of depressed
mood (Just & Alloy, 1997). Brooding represents a psychometric
refinement of depressive rumination to address concerns that earlier
factor solutions were confounded with the measurement of depressive
symptomatology. Treynor, Gonzalez, and Nolen-Hoeksema (2003)
eliminated items from the rumination subscale of the Response Styles
Questionnaire related to the symptoms of depression and developed a
non-affectively confounded two-factor (brooding and pondering) solution
for the RSQ in which brooding was shown to be more strongly associated
with depressed mood than was pondering. The factor structure was
subsequently replicated using exploratory and confirmatory factor
analysis in both general college student and a college student sample of
individuals endorsing cognitive vulnerability to depression (Fresco et al.,
2004). Support for the brooding and pondering solution was also found in
a sample of currently and previously depressed adults (Haigh et al.,
2004).
Current thinking in the area of depressogenic attributional style posits that this class of cognitive vulnerability factor is latent until
activated by stressful life events or temporary negative mood states (Persons & Miranda, 1992). Research has shown that attributional
style, measured when primed, and negative life events are better predictors of depressed mood several days later than either alone, or
unprimed attributional style (Abela & Brozina, 20034). The current investigation sought to evaluate the hypothesis of whether the
interaction between both cognitive reactivity (of explanatory flexibility and ruminative brooding) after a mood priming challenge and
intervening negative life events can predict depressed mood assessed six months after the mood prime. Participants were given
measures of depressive symptoms both before and after a negative mood prime that prior research has shown capable of inducing
temporary negative affect (Segal, et al., 1998). These same participants were then followed-up six months later and given the same
measures of depressive symptoms. The interaction of the reactivity of explanatory flexibility to the mood prime and negative life events
significantly predicted depressive symptoms at follow-up, and approached Cohen’s (1992) convention for a large effect (f2 = .28). The
interaction of the reactivity of ruminative brooding did not significantly predict depressive symptoms, however this finding corresponded to
a medium effect (f2 = .11).
14
12
10
High PostBROOD
Low PostBROOD
8
6
4
2
RESULTS
Low Life Stress
REFERENCES
In regression 1, depressive symptoms at follow-up served as the dependent
variable, while pre-induction depressive symptoms (entered in Step 1), residual
change in explanatory flexibility from pre- to post-mood induction (Step 2),
intervening negative life events (Step 3), and the interaction between flexibility and
negative life events (Step 4) served as predictors.
In regression 2, depressive symptoms at follow-up again served as the dependent
variable, while pre-induction depressive symptoms (Step 1), post-induction brooding
(Step 2), intervening negative life events (Step 3), and the interaction between
brooding and negative life events (Step 4) served as predictors. The results are as
follows:
High Life Stress
Level of Life stress
A series of two hierarchical, set-wise regression analysis were conducted to assess
the relationship of explanatory and brooding reactivity, intervening negative life
events, and their interaction, to levels of depressive symptoms at follow-up.
The residual flexibility x negative life events interaction significantly added
to the prediction of depressive symptoms, ΔF(1,19) = 5.37, p = .03, f2 = .28, and
approached the convention for a large effect
Abela, J. R. Z. & Brozina, K. (2004). The use of negative events to prime cognitive vulnerability to depression.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 209-227.
20
APV of Residual Explanatory Flexibility by Time 3 Life Stress
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
Low ResFLEX
High ResFLEX
4
The current investigation sought to further extend the findings of Fresco,
Moore et al. (2003) by assessing the association between reactivity in
explanatory flexibility and brooding to mood in this six-month follow-up.
Although the post-induction brooding x negative life events interaction did
not significantly add to the prediction of depressive symptoms, ΔF(1,19) = 1.41, ns,
f2 = .10, the effect size approached the convention for a medium effect
2
0
Low Life Stress
Analysis of Partial Variance was again utilized to interpret the post-induction
brooding x negative life events interaction, again examining residual change in
depression as the criterion and High and Low Brooding and Negative Life Events as
the predictor variables.
These findings support our hypothesis that reactivity in
explanatory flexibility and brooding following an
emotion evocation challenge is predictive of
subsequent depressive symptoms:
• Individuals who become rigid in their ability to
explain causes to events in their lives in response to
negative mood are more likely to develop more longterm depressive symptoms when faced with negative
life events
• Individuals who tend to maladaptively ruminate in
response to negative mood are also more likely to
develop depressive symptoms when faced with
negative life events
• Use of emotion evocation challenges may represent
a psychological “stress test” useful in identifying
individuals vulnerable to future emotional upheaval
Limitations
• Participants consisted of relatively highfunctioning college students, resulting in uncertain
generalizability to the general public
• Attrition between the mood induction and follow-up
assessment resulted in small sample size and
questionable external validity
Future Studies
• Replicating the current study utilizing a more
representative population
0
Predicted T3 Depression
Explanatory flexibility and pessimistic brooding represent recent
advancements from two well-established cognitive behavioral theories of
depression. Explanatory flexibility refers to how flexible or rigid
individuals are at assigning causes to events (Fresco & Craighead,
2003). Individuals who view each situation separately and contextually
are regarded as flexible. Fresco and Craighead (2003) operationalized
explanatory flexibility as the standard deviation of an individual’s
responses to the stable and global items for negative events from the
Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al., 1982). A large
standard deviation represents flexibility whereas a small standard
deviation represents rigidity. In this way, explanatory flexibility arises from
the theoretical tradition of the learned helplessness and hopelessness
theories of depression (Abramson et al., 1978; 1989) and is conceptually
related to–but statistically distinct from explanatory style (the tendency to
see negative events arising from internal, stable and global causes).
DISCUSSION
ABSTRACT
High Life Stress
Level of Life Stress
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and
reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74.
Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of
depression. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 358-372.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford.
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the
Behavioral Sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155-159.
Fresco, D. M., Armey, M., Menin, D. S., Turk, C. L., Heimberg, R. G., Alloy, L. B., & Spasojevic, J. (2004). Brooding
and pondering: Isolating the active ingredients of depressive rumination with Confirmatory Factor Analysis and
Structural Equation Modeling. Unpublished manuscript, Kent State University, Kent, OH.
Fresco, D. M. & Craighead, L. W. (2003). Explanatory flexibility: A cognitive process counterpart to explanatory
style. Manuscript under review.
Fresco, D. M., Moore, M. T., Ostrowski, S., & Armey, M. (2003, October). Association of explanatory flexibility and
ruminative brooding to generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder in a mood-priming
paradigm. A poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Psychopathology, Toronto,
Ontario, CA.
Haigh, E. A. P., Armey, M., Fresco, D. M., Auerbach, R., Abela, J. R. Z. (2004, November). Brooding and
Pondering: Isolating the Active Ingredients of Depressive Rumination with Confirmatory Factor Analysis in an
Adult Clinical Sample. A poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of
Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, LA.
Just, N. & Alloy, L. B. (1997). The response styles theory of depression: Tests and an extension of the theory.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 221-229.
Kuehner, C. & Weber, I. (1999). Responses to depression in unipolar depressed patients:
An investigation of Nolen-Hoeksema’s response styles theory. Psychological Medecine,
29, 1323-1333.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms
after a natural disaster: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61,
115-121.
Persons, J. B. & Miranda, J. (1992). Cognitive theories of vulnerability to depression: Reconciling negative
evidence. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16, 485-502.
Peterson, C., Semmel, A., Von Baeyer, C., Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1982). The
Attributional Style Questionnaire. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 6, 287-300.
Sarason, I. G., Johnson, J. H., & Siegal, J. M. (1978). Assessing the impact of life changes: Development of the
Life Experience Survey. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 932-946.
Treynor, W. F. C., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 247-259.