Abstract
It was recently hypothesized that depression primarily is a motivational deficit, where motivation is defined as the product of expectancies and values. This hypothesis has been supported by literature indicating that depressives possess pessimistic expectancies or low outcome values. The present experiments directly tested the motivational hypothesis of depression by measuring both expectancies and absolute values. Experiment 1 supported the hypothesis by finding that depressives possessed lower values, lower expectancies, and therefore lower motivations for most rewards. Experiment 2 failed to support the motivational hypothesis by finding that depressives possessed lower absolute aversions, normal expectancies, and lower motivation for punishers. Differences were not the result of psychopathology in general. Both experiments supported several theories of depression but contradicted others. The major conclusion was that depression primarily is an affective indifference to almost all outcomes and an impaired motivation for almost all outcomes. Implications were drawn concerning the performances of depressives and concerning their responsiveness to certain psychotherapy techniques.
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Thanks to Robert Haaf, for his help with ratio scaling procedures, and to Julie Cassidy.
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Layne, C., Merry, J., Christian, J. et al. Motivational deficit in depression. Cogn Ther Res 6, 259–273 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173575
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173575