Responses to Positive Affect: A Self-Report Measure of Rumination and Dampening

  • Greg C. Feldman
  • Jutta Joormann
  • Sheri L. Johnson
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Rumination in response to dysphoric moods has been linked to the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms; however, responses to positive moods have received less attention despite the theoretical roles of both positive and negative affect in mood disorders. The purpose of the present study was to develop a self-report measure of ruminative and dampening Responses to Positive Affect (RPA), which we called the RPA Questionnaire. In two psychometric studies, the three subscales of the RPA (Dampening, Self-focused positive rumination, and Emotion-focused positive rumination) demonstrated acceptable structural validity, internal consistency, and preliminary evidence of convergent and incremental validity with concurrent measures of self-esteem, depressive rumination, and depressive and manic symptoms among undergraduates. The present results suggest that future research on mood disorders would benefit from measuring responses to both negative and positive moods.

Keywords

Depression Rumination Mania Positive affect Emotion regulation 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  • Greg C. Feldman
    • 1
  • Jutta Joormann
    • 2
  • Sheri L. Johnson
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of PsychologySimmons CollegeBostonUSA
  2. 2.Department of PsychologyUniversity of MiamiCoral GablesUSA

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