Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) tend to present with low positive affect (PA) and high negative affect (NA).Some have proposed that current psychotherapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), treat NA while neglecting PA, and that targeting PA would provide additional improvement of depressive symptoms.However, few treatment studies have tracked NA and PA longitudinally to evaluate their role in CBT.In this study, I will test the relative importance of PA and NA for symptom improvement.In addition to affect, cognitive change is also thought to be important for symptom change in CBT, so I will also examine the relative importance of affect and cognitive change for symptom change.Further, cognitive change is thought to be an important driver, not only of symptom change during CBT, but also of affect change.That relationship may be reciprocal; mood reactivity studies suggest a predictive relationship between negative mood and distorted cognitions.The relation between affect and cognitive change has received little empirical attention.Accordingly, I will test the effects of cognitive change on PA and NA and the effects of PA and NA on cognitive change.Findings from this study will help to elucidate the role of positive and negative affect as well as cognitive change in CBT for depression.
Author: Whelen, Megan L.
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7023895033