One approach to defining well-being - psychological well-being (PWB; Ryff, 1989) - encompasses six dimensions of positive functioning: Autonomy; Environmental Mastery; Personal Growth; Positive Relations with Others; Purpose in Life and Self-Acceptance. Previous research has not clarified the relationship between depression and the dimensions of PWB in a clinical sample. This study's first aim was to compare PWB self-report scores from a group of depressed participants with a non-depressed group. Previous studies have found that people with depression show specific deficits in anticipating future events. A second aim was to further investigate future thinking in depressed individuals by examining the well- being value of anticipated future events in terms of their expected impact on PWB dimensions. A depressed group (n=26) was recruited from a psychological therapies service and compared with a non-depressed control group (n=26) recruited from the community. Participants completed the scales of PWB (Ryff, 1989) and an adaptation of the Future Thinking Task (MacLeod, Rose & Williams, 1993) asking them to identify two events they were looking forward to and two events they were not looking forward to for each of three future time periods. Probe questions elicited what would be good (positive events) or bad (negative events) about these events. Responses were coded for the six dimensions of PWB. The depression group scored significantly lower on all self-reported dimensions of PWB than the control group, with particular deficits in Environmental Mastery and Self-Acceptance. Anticipated positive events made the greatest perceived contribution to Positive Relations with Others and anticipated negative events had the greatest perceived detrimental effect on Environmental Mastery and Positive Relations with Others. There were no significant differences between the groups on the anticipated impact of future events, suggesting that the structure of future thinking in terms of its perceived impact on' PWB is unaltered by depression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:583357 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Edmondson, Olivia J. H. |
| Publisher | University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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