Sad as a matter of evidence: The desire for self-verification motivates the pursuit of sadness in clinical depression
- Background: Research on desired emotions revealed that individuals want to feel negative emotions if they expect these emotions to yield certain benefits. In previous studies, the pursuit of sadness (e.g., via pursuing art that evokes sadness) has been attributed to hedonic motives, i.e., to feel pleasure. We propose that in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) the pursuit of sadness may be more strongly related to self-verification motives, i.e., to sustain their sense of self through feeling sad. Methods: Participants with MDD (n = 50) were compared to non-depressed controls (n = 50) in their desired emotional states, as indicated by selected music (sad, happy and neutral), and in their motives (hedonic vs. self-verification) for choosing sad music. Groups were also compared in their self-reported general preference for sadness and the perceived functionality of sadness. Results: MDD participants showed a significant higher desire for sadness; more than half of them deliberately chose sad music. Whereas MDD participants had a marked preference for self-verification over hedonic motives, the reverse was true for non-depressed controls. MDD participants also agreed more strongly with self-verifying functions of sadness and expressed a stronger general preference for sadness. Conclusion: Findings indicate that emotion regulation in MDD might be driven by self-verification motives. They point to the relevance of exploring patients’ desired emotional states and associated motives. The systematic integration of positive affect into the self-image of depressed patients might help to deemphasize the self-verifying function of sadness, thereby overcoming the depression.
Author: | Elisabeth A. Arens, Ulrich StangierORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-529489 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00238 |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 |
Parent Title (English): | Frontiers in psychology |
Publisher: | Frontiers Research Foundation |
Place of publication: | Lausanne |
Contributor(s): | Roberto Viviani |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2020 |
Date of first Publication: | 2020/02/19 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2020/02/19 |
Tag: | desired affect; emotion regulation; goals; major depressive disorder; motives |
Volume: | 11 |
Issue: | Art. 238 |
Page Number: | 8 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 8 |
Note: | Copyright © 2020 Arens and Stangier. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
HeBIS-PPN: | 460958690 |
Institutes: | Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften / Psychologie |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds: | Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |