Difficulties with emotion regulation in depression may be linked not only to emotion regulation strategies but also to the motivation to experience certain emotions. We assessed the degree of motivation to experience happiness or sadness in major depressive disorders outside the laboratory and prospective links to clinical outcomes over time. Depressed individuals were consistently less motivated to experience happiness and more motivated to experience sadness than nondepressed individuals. The less motivated participants were to experience happiness, the less they tried to upregulate happiness in an emotion regulation task and downregulate negative emotions during real-life stress. Importantly, the less motivated depressed participants were to experience happiness, the more clinical symptoms they exhibited months later during a stressful period, even after controlling for initial levels of symptoms. These findings demonstrate that individual differences in the degree of motivation to experience happiness in depression may carry clinical implications.
AugustineA. A.HemenoverS. H.LarsenR. J.ShulmanT. E. (2010). Composition and consistency of the desired affective state: The role of personality and motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 133–143.
2.
BaerR. A. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 125–143.
3.
BardeenJ. R.KumpulaM. J.OrcuttH. K. (2013). Emotion regulation difficulties as a prospective predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms following a mass shooting. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27, 188–196.
4.
BeckA. T.SteerR. A.BrownG. K. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory manual (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
5.
BrandenbergerC. C.HagenauerG.HascherT. (2018). Promoting students’ self-determined motivation in maths: Results of a 1-year classroom intervention. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 33, 295–317.
6.
BurkeH. M.DavisM. C.OtteC.MohrD. C. (2005). Depression and cortisol responses to psychological stress: a meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 846–856.
7.
BylsmaL. M.MorrisB. H.RottenbergJ. (2008). A meta-analysis of emotional reactivity in major depressive disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 676–691.
8.
CarryerJ. R.GreenbergL. S. (2010). Optimal levels of emotional arousal in experiential therapy of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 190–199.
9.
Chentsova-DuttonY. E.TsaiJ. L.GotlibI. H. (2010). Further evidence for the cultural norm hypothesis: Positive emotion in depressed and control European American and Asian American women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16, 284–295.
10.
DeLongisA.CoyneJ. C.DakofG.FolkmanS.LazarusR. S. (1982). Relationship of daily hassles, uplifts, and major life events to health status. Health Psychology, 1, 119–136.
11.
DerogatisL. R. (1996). SCL-90-R: Symptom Checklist-90-R: Administration, scoring, and procedures manual. Bloomington, MN: NCS Pearson.
12.
ElliotA. J.McGregorH. A. (2001). A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 501–519.
13.
FeldmanG. C.JoormannJ.JohnsonS. L. (2008). Responses to positive affect: A self-report measure of rumination and dampening. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 507–525.
14.
FirstM. B.SpitzerR. L.GibbonM.WilliamsJ. B. (1997). User’s guide for the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders SCID-I: Clinician version. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
15.
FordB. Q.TamirM. (2014). Preferring familiar emotions: As you want (and like) it?Cognition and Emotion, 28, 311–324.
16.
FredricksonB. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions?Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319.
17.
FredricksonB. L.TugadeM. M.WaughC. E.LarkinG. R. (2003). What good are positive emotions in crisis? A prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 365–376.
18.
GrossJ. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299.
19.
GrossJ. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26, 1–26.
20.
GrossJ. J.RichardsJ. M.JohnO. P. (2006). Emotion regulation in everyday life. In SnyderD. K.SimpsonJ. A.HughesJ. N. (Eds.), Emotion regulation in couples and families: Pathways to dysfunction and health (pp. 13–35). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
21.
HackenbrachtJ.TamirM. (2010). Preferences for sadness when eliciting help: Instrumental motives in sadness regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 306–315.
22.
HallionL. S.RuscioA. M. (2011). A meta-analysis of the effect of cognitive bias modification on anxiety and depression. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 940–958.
23.
HansenW. B.McNealR. B.Jr. (1996). The law of maximum expected potential effect: Constraints placed on program effectiveness by mediator relationships. Health Education Research, 11, 501–507.
24.
HartW.AlbarracínD. (2009). The effects of chronic achievement motivation and achievement primes on the activation of achievement and fun goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 1129–1141.
25.
HayesA. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
26.
IzardC. E.LiberoD. Z.PutnamP.HaynesO. M. (1993). Stability of emotion experiences and their relations to traits of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 847–860.
27.
JoormannJ.SiemerM. (2014). Emotion regulation in mood disorders. In GrossJ. J. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (2nd ed., pp. 361–375). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
28.
JoormannJ.VanderlindW. M. (2014). Emotion regulation in depression the role of biased cognition and reduced cognitive control. Clinical Psychological Science, 2, 402–421.
29.
JungertT.Van den BroeckA.SchreursB.OstermanU. (2018). How colleagues can support each other’s needs and motivation: An intervention on employee work motivation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 67, 3–29.
30.
KämpfeN.MitteK. (2009). What you wish is what you get? The meaning of individual variability in desired affect and affective discrepancy. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 409–418.
31.
KendlerK. S.GardnerC. O. (2016). Depressive vulnerability, stressful life events and episode onset of major depression: A longitudinal model. Psychological Medicine, 46, 1865–1874.
32.
KimM. Y.FordB. Q.MaussI. B.TamirM. (2015). Knowing when to seek anger: Psychological health and context-sensitive emotional preferences. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 1126–1136.
33.
KruglanskiA. W.JaskoK.ChernikovaM.MilyavskyM.BabushM.BaldnerC.PierroA. (2015). The rocky road from attitudes to behaviors: Charting the goal systemic course of actions. Psychological Review, 122, 598–620.
34.
KruglanskiA. W.ShahJ. Y.FishbachA.FriedmanR.ChunW. Y.Sleeth-KepplerD. (2002). A theory of goal systems. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 331–378). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
35.
LangP. J.BradleyM. M.CuthbertB. N. (2005). International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual. Gainesville, FL: NIMH, Center for the Study of Emotion & Attention.
36.
LiuD. Y.ThompsonR. J. (2017). Selection and implementation of emotion regulation strategies in major depressive disorder: An integrative review. Clinical Psychology Review, 57, 183–194.
37.
MarshallG. N.SchellT. L.MilesJ. N. (2010). All PTSD symptoms are highly associated with general distress: Ramifications for the dysphoria symptom cluster. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 126–135.
38.
McLaughlinK. A.HatzenbuehlerM. L. (2009). Stressful life events, anxiety sensitivity, and internalizing symptoms in adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 659–669.
39.
MetzgerL. J.PaigeS. R.CarsonM. A.LaskoN. B.PaulusL. A.PitmanR. K.OrrS. P. (2004). PTSD arousal and depression symptoms associated with increased right-sided parietal EEG asymmetry. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 324–329.
40.
MichlL. C.McLaughlinK. A.ShepherdK.Nolen-HoeksemaS. (2013). Rumination as a mechanism linking stressful life events to symptoms of depression and anxiety: Longitudinal evidence in early adolescents and adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122, 339–352.
41.
MikelsJ. A.FredricksonB. L.LarkinG. R.LindbergC. M.MaglioS. J.Reuter-LorenzP. A. (2005). Emotional category data on images from the International Affective Picture System. Behavior Research Methods, 37, 626–630.
42.
MillgramY.JoormannJ.HuppertJ. D.TamirM. (2015). Sad as a matter of choice? Emotion-regulation goals in depression. Psychological Science, 26, 1216–1228.
43.
MiyamotoY.MaX. (2011). Dampening or savoring positive emotions: A dialectical cultural script guides emotion regulation. Emotion, 11, 1346–1357.
44.
MorrisB. H.BylsmaL. M.RottenbergJ. (2009). Does emotion predict the course of major depressive disorder? A review of prospective studies. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 255–273.
45.
OglesB. M.LambertM. J.SawyerJ. D. (1995). Clinical significance of the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program data. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 321–326.
46.
ØiesvoldT.BakkejordT.SextonJ. A. (2011). Concurrent validity of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales compared with a patient-derived measure, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised in out-patient clinics. Psychiatry Research, 187, 297–300.
47.
PeM. L.KircanskiK.ThompsonR. J.BringmannL. F.TuerlinckxF.MestdaghM.. . . KuppensP. (2015). Emotion-network density in major depressive disorder. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 292–300.
48.
PoratR.HalperinE.TamirM. (2016). What we want is what we get: Group-based emotional preferences and conflict resolution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 167–190.
49.
RottenbergJ. (2017). Emotions in depression: What do we really know?Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13, 241–263.
50.
SheppesG.ScheibeS.SuriG.RaduP.BlechertJ.GrossJ. J. (2014). Emotion regulation choice: A conceptual framework and supporting evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 163–181.
51.
SwannW. B. (1987). Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1038–1051.
52.
SwannW. B. (1992). Seeking “truth,” finding despair: Some unhappy consequences of a negative self-concept. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 15–18.
53.
SwannW. B.PelhamB. W. (2002). The truth about illusions: Authenticity and positivity in social relationships. In SnyderC. R.LopezS. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 366–381). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
54.
TamirM. (2009). What do people want to feel and why? Pleasure and utility in emotion regulation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 101–105.
55.
TamirM. (2016). Why do people regulate their emotions? A taxonomy of motives in emotion regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 26, 1216–1228.
56.
TamirM.BigmanY. E.RhodesE.SalernoJ.SchreierJ. (2015). An expectancy-value model of emotion regulation: Implications for motivation, emotional experience, and decision making. Emotion, 15, 90–103.
57.
TamirM.FordB. Q. (2012). Should people pursue feelings that feel good or feelings that do good? Emotional preferences and well-being. Emotion, 12, 1061–1070.
58.
TamirM.FordB. Q.RyanE. (2013). Nonconscious goals can shape what people want to feel. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 292–297.
59.
TamirM.MillgramY. (2017). Motivated emotion regulation: Principles, lessons, and implications of a motivational analysis of emotion regulation. Advances in Motivation Science, 4, 207–247.
60.
TamirM.MitchellC.GrossJ. J. (2008). Hedonic and instrumental motives in anger regulation. Psychological Science, 19, 324–328.
61.
TamirM.SchwartzS. H.CieciuchJ.RiedigerM.TorresC.ScollonC.. . . VishkinA. (2016). Desired emotions across cultures: A value-based account. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 67–82.
62.
TroyA. S.MaussI. B. (2011). Resilience in the face of stress: Emotion regulation as a protective factor. In SouthwickS. M.LitzB. T.CharneyD.FriedmanM. J. (Eds.), Resilience and mental health: Challenges across the lifespan (pp. 30–44). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
63.
TrzesniewskiK. H.DonnellanM. B.RobinsR. (2003). Stability of self-esteem across the life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 205–220.
64.
TsaiJ. L.KnutsonB.FungH. H. (2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 288–307.
65.
TugadeM. M.FredricksonB. L. (2004). Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 320–333.
66.
VallejoM. A.JordánC. M.DíazM. I.ComecheM. I.OrtegaJ. (2007). Psychological assessment via the Internet: A reliability and validity study of online (vs paper-and-pencil) versions of the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) and the Symptoms Check-List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 9, e2.
67.
Van WinkelM.NicolsonN. A.WichersM.ViechtbauerW.Myin-GermeysI.PeetersF. (2015). Daily life stress reactivity in remitted versus non-remitted depressed individuals. European Psychiatry, 30, 441–447.
68.
VishkinA.BigmanY. E.PoratR.SolakN.HalperinE.TamirM. (2016). God rest our hearts: Religiosity and cognitive reappraisal. Emotion, 16, 252–262.
69.
WebbT. L.MilesE.SheeranP. (2012). Dealing with feeing: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 775–808.
70.
WeinbergL.HallN. C.SverdlikA. (2015). Attributional retraining and physical rehabilitation in later life: Intervention effects on motivation, mobility, and well-being. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 33, 294–302.
71.
Werner-SeidlerA.BanksR.DunnB. D.MouldsM. L. (2013). An investigation of the relationship between positive affect regulation and depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51, 46–56.
72.
WolfE. J.HarringtonK. M.ClarkS. L.MillerM. W. (2013). Sample size requirements for structural equation models: An evaluation of power, bias, and solution propriety. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 73, 913–934.
73.
WoodJ. V.HeimpelS. A.ManwellL. A.WhittingtonE. J. (2009). This mood is familiar and I don’t deserve to feel better anyway: mechanisms underlying self-esteem differences in motivation to repair sad moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 363–380.
74.
WoodJ. V.HeimpelS. A.MichelaJ. L. (2003). Savoring versus dampening: Self-esteem differences in regulating positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 566–580.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
