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Traditionally, treatments for depression have been primarily focused on reducing patients' symptoms or deficits and less concerned with building positive resources. This study aims to compare the efficacy of a manualized protocol of empirically-validated positive psychology interventions (PPI) with a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol. This controlled clinical trial included 96 adult women with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia. Participants were blindly allocated to a 10-session PPI ( n = 47) or CBT ( n = 49) group therapy condition. Intention to treat analysis showed that both interventions were effective in reducing clinical symptoms and increasing well-being. There were no significant differences between groups in either main outcomes (i.e., severity of depressive symptoms and clinical diagnosis) or secondary outcomes (e.g., positive and negative affect, and satisfaction with life). Even within the most severely depressed participants, no differences between PPI and CBT emerged. If further clinical studies confirm these results, this would widen treatment choice for both patients and professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experience sampling methodology (ESM) was used in a randomized controlled trial of short-term therapy to examine changes in daily affect and reactivity to daily event appraisals among depressed patients. Fifty-five depressed adults (mean age 37 years, 80 % female) were randomly assigned to one of two therapy conditions. Using an interactive voice response system, participants rated activities and emotional functioning eight times per day for 7 days. Twenty-nine participants completed treatment and repeated ESM at post-treatment. Broad improvements in mood, cognition, and physical functioning were similar across treatment conditions, with the largest improvements for markers of positive affect. Participants demonstrated increased resilience, i.e., diminished reactivity to stressors, at post-treatment. Changes in reactivity to positive daily situations were minimal. Findings underscore the utility of ESM in psychotherapy research and the importance of including measures of both positive and negative affect and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blunted positive affect is characteristic of depression. Altered positive affect regulation may contribute to this blunting, and two regulation strategies, dampening positive affect and positive rumination, have been implicated in depression. However, the conditions under which these strategies impart risk/protective effects prior to onset of depression are unknown. The current study examined 81 healthy children (age 7-10) at low and high risk for depression on the basis of maternal history of depression and tested how dampening and positive rumination interacted with the experience of recent positive life events to predict depressive symptoms. Children at high and low risk did not differ in their use of dampening or positive rumination. However, elevated use of dampening in the context of many positive life events predicted current depressive symptoms, and specifically anhedonic symptoms, in children at low-risk for depression. These findings held when controlling for negative rumination and negative life events. Positive rumination did not interact with positive life events but was associated with higher depressive symptoms in high-risk children. Results indicate that prior to the onset of depression, positive life events may impart risk when dampening positive affect is utilized in this context, while positive rumination may increase risk for depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-regulation models of psychopathology provide a theory-based, empirically supported framework for developing psychotherapeutic interventions that complement and extend current cognitive-behavioral models. However, many clinicians are only minimally familiar with the psychology of self-regulation. The aim of the present manuscript is twofold. First, we provide an overview of self-regulation as a motivational process essential to well-being and introduce two related theories of self-regulation which have been applied to depression. Second, we describe how self-regulatory concepts and processes from those two theories have been translated into psychosocial interventions, focusing specifically on self-system therapy (SST), a brief structured treatment for depression that targets personal goal pursuit. Two randomized controlled trials have shown that SST is superior to cognitive therapy for depressed clients with specific self-regulatory deficits, and both studies found evidence that SST works in part by restoring adaptive self-regulation. Self-regulation-based psychotherapeutic approaches to depression hold significant promise for enhancing treatment efficacy and ultimately may provide an individualizable framework for treatment planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model of self-discrepancies (Higgins in Psychol Rev 94:319-340, ) serves as theoretical framework to investigate whether a perceived discrepancy between the external and self-image ('self-other') is uniquely relevant to paranoid symptoms. This is achieved by comparing the effect of 'self-other' and 'self-ideal' discrepancies on paranoid and depressive symptoms. It is also tested whether emotions such as anxiety and sadness mediate the proposed associations. Self-discrepancies ('self-other' and 'self-ideal') were experimentally induced in a repeated measures design with 60 healthy participants. Symptoms and emotions were compared between both self-discrepancy conditions as well as to a control condition. The findings confirmed the proposed effect of the discrepancy 'self-other' on paranoid symptoms and the mediating effect of anxiety. However, the discrepancy 'self-ideal' also lead to an increase in paranoid symptoms. The findings also confirmed the effect of the discrepancy 'self-ideal' on depressive symptoms and the mediating effect of sadness. It is concluded that the discrepancy 'self-ideal' is a specific vulnerability factor for depressive symptoms, which is mediated by sadness. In contrast, paranoid symptoms are not uniquely related to 'self-other' discrepancies but can be triggered by both types of self-discrepancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are obvious similarities between the cognitive constructs of Beck's cognitive theory, the hopelessness model, and the response styles theory. No single comprehensive model has yet integrated the core cognitive concepts of these theories, however. In order to develop such an integrative cognitive model, we conducted two independent studies with 588 and 606 participants, respectively, from a university population. Both studies support the idea that all cognitive constructs of the three models are distinct from each other. Furthermore, both studies provide evidence for the possibility an integration of the constructs in one cognitive model. If future studies replicate these findings, the integrated cognitive model can provide a theoretical framework to better understand how therapeutic techniques derived from one model influence cognitive variables from another model. This might even allow for improvements in the effectiveness of psychotherapies by theory-driven combinations of therapeutic techniques that are based on different models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive affective functioning (PAF) is critical to the development, course and treatment of depressive symptoms. Targeting key features of PAF during treatment may provide a new angle through which to improve affective functioning and reduce symptoms. The current study was a treatment development trial for the Positive Affect Stimulation and Sustainment (PASS) Module. PASS is conceptualized as a means of capitalizing on positive events (e.g., planned through behavioral activation) by enhancing and sustaining positive affective states through savoring, and establishing positive attributions and expectancies. Participants were 27 female college students with dysphoric symptoms. There was a moderate effect of PASS on depressive symptoms. There was also a significant within session increase in positive affect from pre to post session among the PASS group, relative to active control; and a significant decrease in positive affect from pre (baseline) to post (follow-up) treatment among the control group, relative to PASS. Results provide preliminary evidence for the efficacy of the treatment module among young adults with depressed mood, and lay the foundation for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author introduces the special section on mindfulness: four articles that between them explore the correlates of mindfulness in both cross-sectional and treatment studies. Results from these studies, taken together, suggest a close association between higher levels of mindfulness, either as a trait or as cultivated during treatment, and lower levels of rumination, avoidance, perfectionism and maladaptive self-guides. These four characteristics can be seen as different aspects of the same ‘mode of mind’, which prioritizes the resolution of discrepancies between ideas of current and desired states using a test-operate-test-exit sequence. Mindfulness training allows people to recognize when this mode of mind is operating, to disengage from it if they choose, and to enter an alternative mode of mind characterized by prioritizing intentional and direct perception of moment-by-moment experience, in which thoughts are seen as mental events, and judgemental striving for goals is seen, accepted and ‘let go’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term vulnerability to depression is related to the presence of perceived discrepancies between the actual self and ideal self-guides. This study examined the immediate effects of an 8-week course of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on self-discrepancies in individuals currently in recovery, with a history of affective disorder that included suicidal ideation and behaviour. Results indicated significant time × group interactions for both ideal self similarity and ideal self likelihood ratings, primarily accounted for by increases in self-discrepancy from pre-test to post-test in the waiting list group which were not seen in those receiving MBCT. Changes in self-discrepancy were not associated with changes in residual depressive symptoms, but in the MBCT group there was a significant association between increases in ideal self similarity and the adoption of more adaptive ideal self-guides post treatment. MBCT may protect against increases in self-discrepancy in people vulnerable to relapse to depression and may also facilitate a shift in the goals of self-regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promise of a new generation of therapies targeted to address neurobiological mechanisms thought to underlie psychological disorders, particularly depression, using cognitive and behavioral techniques is discussed. Relationships between such neurobehaviorally focused therapies and other psychological and rehabilitative interventions are also discussed. Their potential utility as adjuncts to conventional treatment, and the importance of multi-method assessment in their evaluation are emphasized. Finally, initial data from a neurobehavioral “cognitive control training” (CCT) adjunctive intervention for severe unipolar depression is presented as an extended example. These data suggest that CCT aids in reducing both physiological mechanisms underlying depression as well as depressive symptomatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous studies of approach- and avoidant mindsets, relatively little research has addressed the impact of such motivational orientations on performance and emotion in a real-time, multi-task setting. A laboratory simulation is reported that examines the influence of an induced approach-centered, an avoidance-centered, and a “neutral” motivational mindset upon multiple aspects of task performance, self-regulatory cognition, and affect. Undergraduate females randomly assigned to one of three mindset conditions performed a simulated automobile drive across one practice and two experimental trials. Dependent measures included divided attention, behavioral indicators of driving “cautiousness” in relatively safe straight roadway sections as well as during more risk-filled driving, multiple aspects of self-regulatory thinking (including self-monitoring, intended effort, and self-administered consequences), and positive and negative affect. Results revealed that the avoidant mindset produced poorer executive attention (i.e., fewer correctly detected divided attention events), more “cautious” driving behavior and reduced performance variability (i.e., greater control) when driving on presumably safe, straight roadway sections, lower self-reports of intended effort, and greater negative affect relative to the approach mindset. Results are intepreted within a self-regulation-centered motivational framework. Implications of the multi-task simulation for the study of normal and disordered adjustment are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-discrepancy theory [E. T. Higgins, 1987] proposes that discrepancies between self and ‘ideal’ standards are associated with dejection-related emotions, whereas discrepancies between self and ‘ought’ standards are associated with agitation-related emotions. Although there is substantial evidence to support the ideal/ought distinction, the traditional method used to measure self-discrepancies contains some theoretical and conceptual limitations. This paper discusses these limitations, presents a critique of other methods of measuring self-discrepancies and suggests a new measurement technique, the Self-Lines measure. This new approach is consistent with the theoretical underpinning of self-discrepancy theory. A pilot study suggests that this approach is feasible and two comparative studies demonstrate the validity and advantages of the Self-Lines measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]