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Dysphorics can control depressive mood’s informational impact on effort mobilization

Motivation and Emotion volume 36, pages 232–241 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Individuals’ level of depression has been shown to systematically determine their amount of effort-related cardiovascular reactivity (see Brinkmann and Gendolla in Motiv Emot, 31:71–82, 2007; J Pers Soc Psychol, 94:146–157, 2008). By means of a mood cue manipulation the present study aimed at providing a conclusive test whether this is due to the informational impact of depressed mood. After habituation, students with low versus high depression scores worked on a memory task under “do-your-best” instructions. Half of them received a cue before the task, suggesting that their current mood may have an impact during task performance. As expected, dysphoric participants showed higher systolic blood pressure reactivity during task performance than nondysphorics when no cue was given. This pattern was reversed in the cue condition, indicating that dysphorics effectively managed to reduce the depressive mood impact on their task demand appraisals and effort mobilization.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. Recently, cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP; i.e., the time interval in ms between the onset of ventricular depolarization and the opening of the aortic valve) has been assessed in the framework of motivational intensity theory (Brehm and Self 1989) as a reliable measure of myocardial contractility (e.g., Annis et al. 2001; Richter et al. 2008). Therefore, we also assessed and analyzed PEP reactivity by means of the same impedance cardiograph and in the same way as described, for instance, by Brinkmann et al. (2009). Due to a software upgrade the sampling rate was 1,000 Hz without down-sampling—contrary to previous studies. Unfortunately, due to contact problems with the patient cable of the impedance cardiograph, there were no data recordings for a quarter of the sample. Analyses based on the reduced sample revealed no baseline differences between the four cells, Fs < 2.31, ps > .13, overall M = 101.85, SD = 9.20. With respect to PEP reactivity during task performance, there were no significant main or interaction effects, Fs < 3.02, ps > .09. Cell means and standard errors of PEP reactivity were as follows: Dysphoric-no cue M = −.01, SE = .66; nondysphoric-no cue M = −2.22, SE = 1.07; dysphoric-cue M = −3.59, SE = 1.63; nondysphoric-cue M = −2.31, SE = .64.

  2. Subjective frequency of the selected words ranged from 2.16 to 3.52 and subjective emotional valence ranged from 2.56 to 3.64 on the 5-point rating scales.

  3. These results hold also true when considering the overall mood scores, composed of the positive and reversed-coded negative adjectives (Cronbach’s αs > .76): There was a dysphoria main effect, F(1, 50) = 33.27, p < .001, η2 = .38, and a cue main effect, F(1, 50) = 4.56, p < .04, η2 = .05, before task performance and a dysphoria main effect, F(1, 50) = 17.03, p < .001, η2 = .25, after task performance. All positive, negative, and overall mood scores were correlated with the depression score, r(54)s > \( \left| {.43} \right| \), ps < .001. These correlations replicate previous findings when the CES-D scale was administered in the end, rather than at the beginning of the experimental session (see Brinkmann et al. 2009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 40, Bd. du Pont d’Arve, 1211, Geneva 4, Switzerland

    Kerstin Brinkmann, Jessica Grept & Guido H. E. Gendolla

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  1. Kerstin Brinkmann
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  2. Jessica Grept
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  3. Guido H. E. Gendolla
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Correspondence to Kerstin Brinkmann.

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Brinkmann, K., Grept, J. & Gendolla, G.H.E. Dysphorics can control depressive mood’s informational impact on effort mobilization. Motiv Emot 36, 232–241 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9236-7

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Keywords

  • Depression
  • Dysphoria
  • Informational mood impact
  • Cardiovascular reactivity
  • Effort mobilization