Abstract
The present study examined whether positive specific memory recall improves mood more than overgeneral memory recall. Moreover, this study examined the mood contrast effect in subclinically depressed participants. The mood contrast effect refers to when people ruminate on discrepancies between the current self and a past ideal self by recall of positive self-discrepant (low self-concordant) memories and thereby, fall into a negative mood. Undergraduate students (N = 161) underwent a negative mood induction, and then concentrated on positive specific memory recall, positive overgeneral memory recall, or distraction. Results showed that there were no group differences in mood repair. Nevertheless, recalled memory self-concordance was associated with sad mood repair in the specific memory group, and moreover, this effect was not significant in people high in depressive symptoms. We discussed the results of mood repair effect from the perspective of baseline negative mood in subclinical depression.
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Notes
We also examined the influence of variation of memory self-concordance on mood repair. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed for change in happy and sad mood in specific and overgeneral memory groups. In step 1, the number of compliant memories was entered as a control variable. In step 2, depressive symptoms and a measure of variance (i.e. standard deviation) of memory self-concordance was entered. In step 3, the interaction between depressive symptoms and the standard deviation of memory self-concordance was entered. However, for each of the four dependent variables, there were no significant main effects or interactions.
We also conducted hierarchical multiple regression analysis using unaltered BDI-II scores. Results again showed three-way interaction effects (β = − .27, p = − .023), suggesting that that memory self-concordance was related to sad mood repair in individuals with low levels of depression (β = − .69, p < .001).
We checked the residuals using Cook’s distance. When using the criteria of Cook’s distance > 0.5, there were no multivariate outliers in the analyses for sad and happy mood changes. We also conducted hierarchical multiple regression analysis for sad mood change excluding three participants who indicated comparable large Cook’s distance. Results again showed similar three-way interaction effects (β = − .25, p = .024), indicating that memory self-concordance was related to sad mood repair in individuals with low levels of depression (β = − .69, p = .009).
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This study was funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant No. 14J00543).
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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Matsumoto, N., Mochizuki, S. Is retrieving positive self-concordant specific memory beneficial to mood repair? The moderation effect of depressive symptoms. Motiv Emot 42, 276–286 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9667-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9667-5