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Abstract
The present series of studies investigated the relationship between emotional reasoning and depression. Emotional reasoning, a feature of cognitive models of emotional disorders, refers to the tendency to form interpretations based upon one s emotional state, as opposed to objective information. Studies 1, 2, and 3a used a procedure adapted from previous research to determine whether emotional reasoning characterises dysphoria and depression. The findings suggested that almost all individuals engage in emotional reasoning and that, although self-referent emotional reasoning may characterise dysphoric moods, clinically depressed individuals do not engage in emotional reasoning to a greater extent than non-depressed individuals. Studies 2 and 3b investigated the prospective relationships between emotional reasoning and depressive symptoms across 8 week and 6 month intervals, respectively. The results of these studies suggested that emotional reasoning does not predict subsequent depressive symptoms. The findings of Study 4a and 4b, which investigated a similar tendency, intrusion-based reasoning, indicated that the interpretations of dysphoric and depressed individuals are not exclusively influenced by emotional states, but also by intrusive autobiographical memories. Studies 5 and 6 aimed to develop improved measures of emotional reasoning. Scores on a new self-report measure of emotional reasoning were not associated with scores obtained using the established procedure, and a mood induction procedure used in Study 6 provided results that were inconsistent with those of Studies 1, 2, and 3a, in that few individuals appeared to engage in emotional reasoning. Finally, as a preliminary step towards translating lab-based research to a clinical setting, Study 7 investigated whether emotional reasoning tendencies change during the course of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Although anxiety and depressive symptoms improved with treatment, emotional reasoning scores remained stable, indicating that established CBT approaches may not address emotional reasoning tendencies. Together, the findings across these studies highlight the apparent ubiquity of emotional reasoning and indicate that it is marginally, if at all, elevated in depression. Numerous methodological questions are raised by the research and the results of these studies undermine cognitive models of psychopathology that suggest emotional reasoning characterises and contributes to depression.