Date of Award

Fall 1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Peter J. Mikulka

Committee Member

Robin J. Lewis

Committee Member

David L. Pancoast

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65W37

Abstract

This study investigated memory and cognitions in dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals by examining reported thoughts and positive and negative word recall. Participants were female volunteers from Old Dominion University with 24 non-dysphoric subjects and 18 dysphoric subjects. Each subject was asked to read positive and negative life descriptions at separate times. After the descriptions had been read, 23 subjects were asked to suppress the description and 19 subjects were not given these instructions. Subjects then wrote down their thoughts for 6 minutes. Following the writing of thoughts, each subject was then asked to recall freely a list of 30 words. The results did not support the hypothesis that dysphorics would recall fewer positive words than the non-dysphorics. Although counterbalancing was used, order effects appeared throughout many of the analyses. Future research on the role of depressive cognitions in the maintenance dysphoria is discussed.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/6kn3-ms94

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