Examining depressive thinking from a functional perspective: Its links with stressors, sadness, and symptoms

Abstract

Depression is a condition characterized by sadness and other symptoms, which are implicated in a persistent style of thinking referred to as depressive rumination. The analytical rumination hypothesis argues that depression is an adaptive response to complicated, personal problems, and that rumination involves an analysis of these problems. This analytical rumination has two stages: first, depressive symptoms promote causal analysis (i.e., considering why the problems happened). Causal analysis then leads to problem-solving analysis (i.e., finding ways to deal with problems), which in turn reduces depression. The empirical studies in this dissertation collectively test whether the nature of depressive thinking is consistent with the analytical rumination hypothesis. In Chapter 2, I investigated the temporal order of sadness and the stages of analytical rumination by asking participants to write about their personal problems. This writing paradigm promoted sadness and causal analysis, but not problem-solving analysis, suggesting that depressive symptoms coincide with causal thinking. In Chapter 3, I explored whether emotions during writing were related to analytical thinking by modifying the paradigm to isolate the impact of other factors (i.e., personal experience with the problem and its valence). These factors could not fully account for emotional changes during writing, suggesting that analytical thinking played a role. Analytical rumination is one of several theories of depressive thinking, so in Chapter 4, I conducted a joint factor analysis of four rumination questionnaires and compared the prevalence of the emerging factors. Factors reflecting causal thoughts and problem-solving were most frequently endorsed, even when they were measured in the presence of sadness induced by the writing paradigm in Chapter 5. Furthermore, associations between these factors and depressive symptoms were consistent with the stages of analytical rumination. Overall, my findings suggest that depressive thinking focuses on understanding and solving problems, and it may have functional implications for depression.