Is Rumination General or Specific to Negative Mood States? The Relationship between Rumination and Distraction and Depressed, Anxious, and Angry Moods in Women

Rumination has been found to play a role in negative affect by either maintaining or increasing depressive, anxious, and angry moods, whereas distraction has been found to decrease these negative moods. This experiment tested the hypothesis that the effect of rumination occurs across mood states and is not specific to one type of negative mood, using both NolenHoeksema’s Response Styles Theory (RST; 1991), and Bower’s Associative Network Theory (1981; ANT). The impact of rumination and distraction on depressed, anxious, and angry mood states were examined in 90 women at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Participants were randomly placed in 1of 3 mood inductions (depressed, anxious, or angry), and in either a rumination or distraction response task. Mood was assessed using the Profile of Mood Scales, Brief Form (POMS-B; McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1992) at 3 times; baseline, post-mood induction, and post-response task. Consistent with Bower’s ANT (1981), repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance showed that all negative moods increased following the negative mood induction, regardless of the particular mood induced. However, the data did not fully support Nolan-Hoeksema’s RST (1991); negative mood did not increase following the rumination task, but instead decreased. Following the distraction task, mood was significantly lower than at baseline, suggesting that distraction appeared to have some positive induction qualities. Overall, these findings support Bower’s ANT and offer only partial support for NolenHoeksema’s RST; potential alternative explanations for the results are discussed. Lauren, Jessica, 2006, UMSL, p. . 9 Is Rumination General or Specific to Negative Mood States? The Relationship between Rumination and Distraction and Depressed, Anxious, and Angry Moods in Women Rumination is a relatively new construct that began to receive extensive attention in the 1990s. The majority of research on rumination has been conducted to help explain the causes and consequences of depressed mood, as well as the gender differences found in clinical depression. Some investigators have begun to examine rumination in relation to anxious mood; however, more research has been conducted in relation to comorbid depressed and anxious moods. When examining negative mood states, rumination has also been found to be related to anger. Although rumination has received attention in the literature over the past decade, it is not clear whether rumination affects multiple negative mood states concurrently. Thus, the purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that rumination is more generally linked to negative mood states, rather than specifically linked to depressed mood. Before reviewing any of the literature, it is important to first explain the concept of rumination and its significance in the study of mood disorders. Overview of Conceptual Issues in the Study of Rumination Ruminations have been defined as intrusive and repetitive thoughts that occur when there is nothing else people can to do to overcome discrepancies between reality and alternative states, between what is and what might be or could have been (Wanke & Schmid, 1996). Ruminating may occur when there is no control over a loss, when one fails to achieve important personal goals, when an individual is presented with something new that takes hold of her or his thoughts and causes trouble focusing, or when it is perceived that one’s social support network is no longer interested in listening to problems (King & Pennebaker, 1996; Papageorgiou & Wells, Lauren, Jessica, 2006, UMSL, p. . 1