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The phenomenology of emotion in depressed young adolescents
Abstract
Depressive affect and depressive disorders have been shown to increase in the transition from childhood to early adolescence. Furthermore, although Major Depression is classified as an affective disorder and many have asserted the importance that knowledge about emotions holds for understanding the organization, etiology, neurobiology, and treatment of depression, empirical investigation has been lacking. This is particularly true as regards adolescence. The current study explored the subjective experience of emotions, with attention also to emotional expression, associated with depression in groups of 39 psychiatric inpatients and 22 non-clinical control young adolescents. Measures included a self-report measure of depressive symptomatology, the Childhood Depression Inventory (CDI), and a self-report measure of the frequency of experience of individual emotions, the Differential Emotions Scale-IV (DES-IV). Two new emotions scales, Loved and Detached, were added to the DES-IV. There also was a video mood induction procedure accompanied by verbal report of immediate emotional state and detailed analysis of emotional facial expressions using the AFFEX system. Results were analyzed considering differences in depression level and gender. Depressed subjects scored significantly higher on a Dysphoria factor, most saliently comprised of Inward Hostility and Shame but also including Shyness, Fear and Sadness, and significantly lower on a Joy/Loved factor. The depressed subjects also reported being more aware of their emotions. Regarding emotional expression, depressed subjects showed a higher frequency of negative emotions (anger, sadness, disgust) and a lower frequency of joy than their non-depressed counterparts. There were no depression-related differences in self-report of emotional state in response to the video mood induction procedure, though males reported being happier than females. The relationship between emotional experience and emotional expression was stable over all depression level by gender groupings with the exception of highly depressed males. Overall, there were large gender-related differences in the organization of emotions associated with depression, with relationships for males characterized as fragmented. Study results are discussed in reference to research on emotions and depression in children and adults, normal adolescent emotional development, and adolescent development in other domains, most notably the self-concept.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology|Developmental psychology
Recommended Citation
Ecker, Bruce Michael, "The phenomenology of emotion in depressed young adolescents" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9120873.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9120873