J. Helgi Clayton McClure
Differentiating anticipated and anticipatory emotions and their sensitivity to depressive symptoms
Clayton McClure, J. Helgi; Riggs, Kevin J.; Dewhurst, Stephen A.; Anderson, Rachel J.
Authors
Professor Kevin Riggs K.Riggs@hull.ac.uk
Professor of Psychology
Professor Stephen Dewhurst S.Dewhurst@hull.ac.uk
Professor of Cognitive Psychology
Dr Rachel Anderson Rachel.Anderson@hull.ac.uk
Reader
Abstract
Anticipated emotions are the feelings one expects if a hypothetical future event were to occur, whereas anticipatory emotions are those one experiences right now while imagining the event. There has been little direct comparison of these two forms of future-oriented emotion, and authors have typically focused on positive emotions (e.g., pleasure). Besides, their sensitivity to depressive symptoms—which may help to explain motivational problems in depression—has only recently been investigated (e.g., Anderson et al., 2023; Gamble et al., 2021). The present study (conducted September–November 2022) used innovative picture-and-text vignettes depicting everyday positive and negative future events, to which participants rated their anticipated and anticipatory responses on separate dimensions of valence (i.e., how positive or negative) and arousal (i.e., emotional intensity). Based on prior literature, anticipatory emotions were expected to be correlated with, yet weaker than, anticipated emotions, reflecting a conceptualization of anticipatory emotions as a “foretaste” of the affective response one expects in the future. We also predicted that high depressive symptoms would coincide with diminished emotion ratings overall and specifically for anticipatory emotions (tightly coupled with event expectations; Carrera et al., 2012). Results largely supported these preregistered predictions, yet anticipatory emotions (positive and negative) were only weaker in more highly depressed participants. Depressive symptoms may therefore affect how one currently feels about future possibilities without altering one’s expectations of how such events would actually feel. Implications and future research objectives arising from this are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Citation
Clayton McClure, J. H., Riggs, K. J., Dewhurst, S. A., & Anderson, R. J. (online). Differentiating anticipated and anticipatory emotions and their sensitivity to depressive symptoms. Emotion, https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001371
Journal Article Type | Article |
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Acceptance Date | Feb 13, 2024 |
Online Publication Date | Jun 6, 2024 |
Deposit Date | Mar 1, 2024 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 7, 2024 |
Journal | Emotion |
Print ISSN | 1528-3542 |
Publisher | American Psychological Association |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001371 |
Keywords | Depression; Anticipated emotion; Anticipatory emotion; Future thinking; Multilevel models |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4567272 |
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Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s).
Open Access funding provided by University of Hull: This work is
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