Worry, Anhedonic Depression, and Emotional Styles

Abstract

This study examined how elevated levels of worry and anhedonic depression are associated with affect intensity, attention to emotion, and clarity of emotion. University students (N = 923) completed the Affect Intensity Measure, the Trait Meta Mood Scale, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and the anhedonic depression subscale from the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire. Control individuals with worry and depression scores below the median (n = 158) were compared with three distress groups—elevated worry without elevated depression (n = 58), elevated depression without elevated worry (n = 35), and elevated levels of both worry and depression (n = 39). The control and distress groups each differed significantly from one another, and these differences could not be accounted for by gender or neuroticism. Controls resembled individuals described in past research as being cerebral, the depression-only group resembled individuals described as being cool, the worry-only group resembled individuals described as hot, and the dual-distress group resembled individuals described as overwhelmed.