There have been few investigations of the goals of depressed individuals despite the well-documented effects of depression on motivation. This study focused on two aspects of goals in particular, approach and avoidance motivation, and self- concordance. The aim was to find out whether, in line with neurobiological theories of depression (F owles, 1988,1994), decreased approach motivation and increased avoidance motivation would be evident. A secondary aim was to investigate whether the goals of depressed individuals would be less self-concordant than non-depressed individuals. A depressed (n=26) group was recruited from Primary Care and Mental Health Trust sites, and compared with a non-depressed (n=33) group recruited from the community. Participants listed approach and avoidance goals, chose two of each and wrote down their underlying reasons for adopting these goals. They then rated their anticipated affect upon successful goal attainment and completed a measure of self-concordance for each goal. At face value, there were no differences between the groups in terms of numbers of approach and avoidance goals generated. However, when underlying reasons were examined, the expected relationships between depression, decreased approach motivation and increased avoidance motivation were found. As predicted, the goals of depressed individuals were also less self-concordant than those of non-depressed individuals. These results suggest that, although individuals with depression are engaged in pursuit of the same types and numbers of goals as non-depressed individuals, their reasons for goal pursuit are more negative in terms of avoidance motives and acting for non self-concordant reasons. 3
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:583258 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Sherratt, Katherine A. L. |
| Publisher | University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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