Understanding Biased Expectation Change in Depression – The Influence of State Affect and Affect Regulation

Abstract Purpose People with depression tend to hold on to negative expectations despite positive expectation-disconfirming experiences. Research has made progress on understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying these problems, however, knowledge about affective mechanisms is scarce. This study aimed to investigate the influence of affect and affect regulation on expectation change in depression. Methods N = 80 outpatients with depression completed two parts of a performance test. In a randomized order, they received positive feedback after one part and negative feedback after the other part. Participants either received an induction of amusement ( n = 40) or sadness ( n = 40) before each part of the test. Affect regulation was assessed using self-report measures. Performance expectations were measured before taking the test, after receiving positive feedback, and after receiving negative feedback. Expectation change was defined as the degree to which participants lowered vs. raised their expectations in response to the respective feedback. Results Expectation change was larger in response to negative than to positive feedback. Affect did not influence expectation change. The results suggest that baseline expectations and affect regulation influenced expectation change in sad participants. Conclusion The results show that people with depression have more difficulty adapting their expectations if new information is positive than if it is negative. State affect, however, did not influence expectation change, most likely because the effects of the emotion-inducing video-clips were not long-lasting enough. Our results point out the relevance of further exploring the effect of baseline expectations and affect regulation on expectation change.