When the ends outweigh the means: mood and level of identification in depression

Abstract processing of a positive memory is associated with recalling positive memories from an observer perspective

ruminative processing and recalling memories from an observer perspective represent two cognitive processes with adverse consequences in depression. However, no study to date has investigated the interrelationship of abstract processing, observer perspective and depression symptoms in the context of recalling personal emotional (positive, negative) memories, nor imagining emotional future events. An unselected online sample (N = 342) of participants was randomly allocated to one of four conditions: to recall a memory of a positive or negative event, or to imagine a future positive or negative event. Participants rated the vantage perspective from which they recalled or imagined the event, and the extent to which they engaged in abstract processing about it. For positive memories, a positive correlation emerged between abstract processing of the memory and observer recall; this relationship remained significant when depression symptoms were controlled. Abstract processing and vantage perspective were unrelated in the remaining three conditions. Whilst our findings await replication with a clinical sample to confirm generalisability to depressed individuals, they underscore the importance of investigating cognitive processes that influence positive memory recall and provide preliminary evidence that abstract processing of a positive memory is related to recalling the memory from an observer perspective.

There Are Many Ways to See the Forest for the Trees: A Tour Guide for Abstraction

Abstraction is a useful process for broadening mental horizons, integrating new experiences, and communicating information to others. Much attention has been directed at identifying the causes and consequences of abstraction across the subdisciplines of psychology. Despite this attention, an integrative review of the methods that are used for studying abstraction is missing from the literature. The current article aims to fill this gap in several ways. First, we highlight the different ways in which abstraction has been defined in the literature and then suggest an integrative definition. Second, we provide a tour of the different ways abstraction has been manipulated and measured over the years. Finally, we highlight considerations for researchers in choosing methods for their own research.

Does mode of processing during a positive experience have consequences for affect?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Rumination about negative material (e.g., depression symptoms, current problems) contributes to the course and maintenance of depression. More recently, studies have shown that it is not rumination per se, but rather the mode of processing (i.e., abstract/analytical versus concrete/experiential) adopted during rumination that is critical in determining whether rumination has adaptive or maladaptive outcomes. To date, only one study has examined the affective impact of adopting a particular processing mode with positive material; specifically, when recalling a happy memory. The current study extends this line of investigation by examining whether adopting an abstract or concrete processing mode during a positive experience (i.e., a success task) has consequences for subsequent affect.

METHODS

High and low dysphoric participants (N = 136) were randomly allocated to abstract, concrete or no training conditions prior to a success experience. Affect was measured before and after success.

RESULTS

We found that neither processing mode condition nor dysphoria status had consequences for the affective impact of success.

LIMITATIONS

Our findings are based on an analogue sample. Further research is required to enable generalisation to depression.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides some initial indication in a non-clinical sample that processing mode does not have the same differential affective impact when combined with a positive experience (e.g., success) as when combined with a negative experience (e.g., failure).

Dysregulation in level of goal and action identification across psychological disorders

Goals, events, and actions can be mentally represented within a hierarchical framework that ranges from more abstract to more concrete levels of identification. A more abstract level of identification involves general, superordinate, and decontextualized mental representations that convey the meaning of goals, events, and actions, "why" an action is performed, and its purpose, ends, and consequences. A more concrete level of identification involves specific and subordinate mental representations that include contextual details of goals, events, and actions, and the specific "how" details of an action. This review considers three lines of evidence for considering that dysregulation of level of goal/action identification may be a transdiagnostic process. First, there is evidence that different levels of identification have distinct functional consequences and that in non-clinical samples level of goal/action identification appears to be regulated in a flexible and adaptive way to match the level of goal/action identification to circumstances. Second, there is evidence that level of goal/action identification causally influences symptoms and processes involved in psychological disorders, including emotional response, repetitive thought, impulsivity, problem solving and procrastination. Third, there is evidence that the level of goal/action identification is biased and/or dysregulated in certain psychological disorders, with a bias towards more abstract identification for negative events in depression, GAD, PTSD, and social anxiety.