LEVEL AND INSTABILITY OF DAY-TO-DAY PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND RISKFOR DEPRESSION

For 21 days, 123 undergraduates provided measures of their self-esteem , anxiety, causal uncertainty, perceived control over outcomes, and th e three constructs comprising A. T. Beck's (1972) cognitive triad. Fac tor analyses of measures of the mean level and day-to-day instability of these constructs produced 2 factors, level of well-being and day-to -day instability of well-being. Participants also provided 4 measures of risk for depression over 2 1/2 months. For participants who were no t at risk for depression, level of day-to-day well-being was negativel y related to risk for depression, and this effect was not moderated by day-to-day instability. In contrast, for participants who were classi fied as at-risk for depression, day-to-day instability of well-being m oderated the strength of the negative relationship between level of we ll-being and risk for depression. The relationship between level of we ll-being and depression was stronger for participants who were more un stable.