Rumination, Negative Cognition, Depressed Mood

Rumination, negative cognition and their interactive effects on depressed mood.

Ciesla, J. A., & Roberts, J. E. (2007). Rumination, negative cognition and their interactive effects on depressed mood. Emotion, 7, 555-565.

Abstract

Response styles theory posits that rumination represents a trait vulnerability to depression. Recent evidence has suggested that rumination predicts changes in depression more strongly among individuals with high levels of negative cognition. Three studies evaluated this model of interactive vulnerabilities. Study 1 provided empirical support for the distinction between rumination and negative cognitive content. The next 2 studies investigated the interactive model in the laboratory. Study 2 randomly assigned participants to either ruminate or distract following a sad mood induction. This study found that rumination was more strongly associated with dysphoria among individuals who report high levels of negative cognition. Similarly, Study 3 found that rumination and negative cognition interact to predict changes in dysphoria across a no-task delay period following a sad mood induction. These studies provide support for an interactive model in which rumination amplifies the deleterious effects of negative cognition.

A copy of the full article can be found here.

Rumination Reconsidered

Re-visiting the Ruminative Response Styles Questionnaire.

Treynor, W., Gonzalez. R., Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 247–259. Link to full article here.

Abstract

In an attempt to eliminate similar item content as an alternative explanation for the relation between depression and rumination, a secondary analysis was conducted using the data from S. Nolen-Hoeksema, J. Larson, and C. Grayson (1999). After constructing a measure of rumination unconfounded with depression content, support for a two factor model of rumination was found. These analyses indicate that the 2 components, reflective pondering and brooding, differentially relate to depression in terms of predictive ability and gender difference mediation. The results presented here support the general premise of Nolen-Hoeksema’s Response Styles Theory (S. Nolen-Hoeksema 1987) that rumination can contribute to more depressive symptoms and to the gender difference in depression, but suggest important refinements of the theory. Such refinements include the need to differentiate between the reflective pondering component of rumination and the brooding component in rumination research.

Rumination measures

An investigation of the extent to which differing definitions of rumination represent a single construct.

Siegle, G. J., Steinhauer, S. R., Carter, C. S., & Thase, M. E. 'Convergence and Divergence in Rumination Measures'

Presentation to the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, November 18, 2000

Abstract

Rumination has been associated with increased vulnerability to, maintenance of, and delays in recovery from depression. Yet, different researchers define rumination differently. A number of experiments were conducted to examine the extent to which these definitions represent a single construct and thus, the extent to which they are associated with aspects of depression. First, seven rumination scales were administered to 189 undergraduates. Generalizability analysis suggested that the scales were not responded to consistently by participants, though each scale had adequate internal consistency. Follow-up examinations suggested that while the scales overlap to some extent they measure different dimensions of rumination. The second study involved giving the same measures to depressed and never-depressed individuals during information processing tasks designed to provoke sustained processing of emotional information. Reaction times, pupil dilation (a correlate of cognitive load) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used to assess sustained brain activity during the tasks. Scores on many of the administered rumination scales were highly correlated with reaction time biases, sustained pupil dilation to negative information, and sustained amygdala activation. Results suggest that while measures of rumination may tap different phenomena, they have similar physiological correlates.