Ruminative self-focus in daily life: associations with daily activities and depressive symptoms

The present study examined the situations and conditions in which ruminative self-focus is less likely to occur in daily life. Previous researchers have described a mood-brightening effect of depression, where depressed individuals exhibit greater positive emotional reactivity to positive daily events than do nondepressed individuals. To better understand this paradoxical effect, we investigated the moderating role of depression in the relationship between daily activities and ruminative thinking. Forty-one Japanese undergraduates (9 women and 32 men) recorded their thought contents and the type and subjective appraisals of activities that they engaged in 8 times a day for a week at semirandom intervals. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that subjectively pleasant activities were associated with improved mood states and reduced ruminative thinking. However, some of these associations were moderated by depressive symptoms, suggesting that individuals with higher levels of depression showed a greater reduction of ruminative thinking during pleasant activities. These results imply that daily activities are important for reducing rumination, particularly for individuals with higher levels of depression, and that the brightening effect of depression is evident for cognitive as well as emotional activities. The cognitive basis of this paradoxical effect is discussed.