Reducing vulnerability to depression: dysregulation of processing style and depressive rumination. (360G-Wellcome-080099_Z_06_Z)

Rumination is an important factor in the onset and maintenance of depression. The applicant s previous Wellcome-funded research found that, relative to a concrete processing style, an abstract style produces unhelpful consequences during rumination. The proposed research investigates important unresolved questions arising from these findings: (a) What mechanisms cause individuals prone to depression to preferentially use the abstract style during rumination? (b) What mechanisms mediate the effec ts of processing style on the consequences of rumination? (c) Can depression-prone people be shifted into the helpful style? It is hypothesised that (a) depression-prone people use the abstract style during rumination because of a breakdown in normal, flexible regulation between processing styles in response to situational demands; (b) generic, decontextualised representations of negative experience mediate the unhelpful consequences of the abstract style. Key goals are to test independent predi ctions derived from these hypotheses by using experimental manipulations: 1) In response to sad mood, depression-prone individuals use the abstract style, whereas non-depressed controls use the concrete style; 2) Decontextualised representations exacerbate the negative emotional response to a failure; 3) Regulation of processing style influences emotional response to both success and failure; 4) Training depression-prone individuals to adopt the concrete style reduces rumination and depression.