Negative Mood, Perceived Self-Efficacy, and Personal Standards in Dysphoria: The Effects of Contextual Cues on Self-Defeating Patterns of Cognition

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of mood-related cues on the relation between performance standards and self-efficacy perceptions in dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals. Participants' personal standards and self-efficacy perceptions for various everyday activities were assessed. In the absence of mood-related cues, dysphoric participants, unlike nondysphorics, held standards that slightly exceeded their self-efficacy perceptions. A cue that highlighted the potential influence of mood on self-judgments eliminated the difference between dysphoric and nondysphoric participants. A cue that highlighted a potential external source of current mood magnified the group difference, leading dysphoric individuals to strongly exhibit a “self-defeating” cognitive pattern in which they adopted standards that far exceeded their self-efficacy levels. The cues also moderated the strength of relations between mood and personal standards. Current affect appears to play a role in the construction of standards and self-efficacy perceptions, and different affective processes may operate in the self-judgments of dysphoric versus nondysphoric individuals.