A TEST OF WHETHER NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL PRIMING FACILITATES ACCESS TO LATENT DYSFUNCTIONAL ATTITUDES

The mood-state hypothesis (Persons & Miranda, 1992) proposes that dysf unctional beliefs are stable in nature but that reporting such beliefs depends on current mood state. It further proposes that access to lat ent dysfunctional beliefs gained through negative emotional priming wi ll augment the prediction of depressed mood reactions. To test these i deas, recovered-depressed (RD) and never-depressed (ND) college studen ts were assigned to one of three mood-induction conditions: positive i nduction, negative induction, no induction. Dysfunctional beliefs were assessed in each condition. Approximately one week later, subjects re turned for a second session in which they imagined themselves in vario us situations and rated how depressed or happy each situation would ma ke them feel. Results were contrary to the mood-state hypothesis. That is, the mood induction did not differentially facilitate access to dy sfunctional attitudes, nor were mood-induced dysfunctional attitudes d ifferentially predictive of depressed mood reactions. Instead, consist ent with Beck's original diathesis-stress model, dysfunctional attitud es were directly predictive of depressed mood reactions to negative, b ut not positive, imagined events. Overall, these findings suggest caut ion in attempts to use negative emotional priming to enhance the predi ction of depressed mood reactions.