Affective reactions to failure as a function of effort and depression

University students, divided on a quartile split into low (n = 53) and high (n = 42) depression groups (Beck scores of 0-1 or 7 and higher), were presented a series of failure situations in which failure occurred under high effort (with situational factors causing failure) or low effort. Subjects rated their affective reactions to each situation. It was hypothesized that the group low on depression would feel worse after high effort (since this would challenge their sense of self-efficacy) whereas the high depression group would feel better in this condition (since attribution of failure to situational factors would protect their sense of self-esteem). Results were consistent with expectations for the group low on depression. For the group high on depression, the means were rank-ordered as predicted but the difference was not significant.