Research on depression requires investigation of the roles played by emotio
ns. A study of 137 college students tested hypotheses that fear and anger,
as well as sadness and guilt, are associated with the symptoms of depressio
n, and that individuals in whom these four negative emotions tend to occur
on the same days are more likely to be depressed. Measures included emotion
scales completed daily for 52 days, informant-reported emotion scales, the
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Center for Epidemiological Studies De
pression Scale (CES-D), a new MMPI-derived Symptoms of Depression Scale (SD
S) reflecting the nine diagnostic symptoms of major depression, and a modif
ied version, the SDS-M, that omitted depressed mood and guilt items. All fo
ur emotions, as measured by self- and informant-reports, were correlated wi
th depressive symptoms (P < 0.05). Within-subjects correlations between sad
ness and anger were in turn positively correlated with depressive symptoms.
Theory and clinical understanding of depressive disorders can be enlarged
by further investigation of the role of emotions, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.