Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of dichotomous thinking on depression. We attempted to test the following hypotheses: 1) dichotomous thinking increases depression, and 2) dichotomous thinking has two routes to increase depression—direct, associative processing, and indirect, reflective processing. Two hundred Japanese college students (Males: 107, Females: 93, M age= 20.02 ± 1.42) were asked to complete the Dichotomous Thinking Inventory, which consists of three subscales: dichotomous belief, profit-and-loss thinking, and preference for dichotomy; the Kessler 6 Distress Scale; and the Japanese version of the Rumination-reflection Questionnaire. We conducted structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses. The results supported the hypotheses and indicated that dichotomous thinking increased depression. There were two different routes: dichotomous belief directly increased depression and profit-and-loss thinking indirectly increased depression by way of rumination. There are some implications of the findings. This study suggests that cognitive distortions might causes depression from two paths and practical interventions might also have two different routes or approaches to depression.
Highlights
Beck’s cognitive theory assumes that some individuals may be vulnerable to depression because they develop dysfunctional beliefs as a result of early learning experiences (Beck, 1967)
Two hundred Japanese college students (Males: 107, Females: 93, M age= 20.02 ± 1.42) were asked to complete the Dichotomous Thinking Inventory, which consists of three subscales: dichotomous belief, profit-and-loss thinking, and preference for dichotomy; the Kessler 6 Distress Scale; and the Japanese version of the Rumination-reflection Questionnaire
Comparing the three Dichotomous Thinking Inventory (DTI) subscales and Rumination-reflection Questionnaire (RRQ) between the two groups, we found that depressive participants had higher preference for dichotomy, dichotomous belief, profit-and-loss thinking, and rumination scores than non-depressive participants (Table 3)
Summary
Beck’s cognitive theory assumes that some individuals may be vulnerable to depression because they develop dysfunctional beliefs as a result of early learning experiences (Beck, 1967). Cognitive distortions are negatively biased errors in thinking that are purported to increase vulnerability to depression (Beck, 1976; Dozois & Beck, 2008; Acharya & Relojo, 2017). Dual process models, which articulates the characteristics of human cognition from a broad framework, have been applied in many areas of psychology and he applied those to the mechanism of depression (Pennycook, 2017). According to dual process theories, humans possess two modes of information processing: an associative jedp.ccsenet.org
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