The grass is not as green as you think: Affect evaluation in people with internalizing disorders.
Affect evaluation - how people evaluate their emotion experiences - has important implications for mental health.



We examined how 70 adults diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and/or Generalized Anxiety Disorder or no psychiatric disorders (control group) believe they should feel in the moment (should affect). We repeatedly assessed participants' current affect and should affect over one week using experience sampling. To examine the psychometric properties of should affect, participants rated their level of rumination at each survey and completed trait measures of brooding and ideal affect at the lab.



Independent of group status, participants reported that they should be feeling more positive affect and less negative affect. Even after accounting for mean affect, the clinical groups' reports were generally more extreme than were those of the control group. We documented good convergent and discriminant validity of should affect. Finally, we describe clinical implications and directions for future research.
Washington University in St. Louis, United States. Electronic address: reneejthompson@gmail.com.
Renee J
RJ
Thompson
Stanford University, United States.
Katharina
K
Kircanski
Stanford University, United States.
Ian H
IH
Gotlib
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D040701:Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking
Affect evaluation; Affective disorders; Depression; Emotion; Generalized anxiety disorder