Influence of Emotional Intensity and Frequency of Positive and Negative Events on Depression

Abstract

This study replicates and extends aspects of psychological behaviorism's analysis of the role of positive and negative events in depression. As a first step, four pilot studies were conducted to develop a positive and negative events rating scale. This measure assesses the emotional intensity of positive and negative events (i. e., the strength of the positive or negative emotional response produced by the event) as well as the frequency of occurrence of the positive and negative events. A sample of 1089 college students then completed the Beck Depression Inventory and this new life events measure. Consistent with psychological behaviorism's analysis that emotional intensity involves a personality process and frequency an environmental process, the results showed that the emotional intensity of positive and negative events as well as the frequency of positive and negative events had independent roles in the prediction of depression (i. e., each of the four variables predicted depression after controlling for the other three). In addition, the results supported the personality and environmental subtypes of depression as specified by the theory. Suggestions are made for how subsequent research can test more explicitly this theory of depression.