Making the worst of a good job: Induced dampening appraisals blunt happiness and increase sadness in adolescents during pleasant memory recall

Abstract

Previous work has shown that dampening appraisals (e.g., thinking "this is too good to last") reduce happiness and enhance sadness when adults recall positive events. In contrast, amplifying appraisals (e.g., thinking "this is the sign of good things to come") do not significantly alter affective experience during the same task. The present study examined whether this pattern holds in adolescence. Eighty-nine adolescents completed an uninstructed positive recall task before being randomized to either dampening, uninstructed control or amplifying instructions during a second positive recall task. Participants experienced a significantly smaller increase in happiness and a significantly less marked reduction in sadness when recalling a positive memory under dampening instructions, relative to both the amplifying and no instruction control conditions. There was no significant difference between the amplifying and control conditions. This broadly replicates adult findings, but the detrimental effects of dampening were less marked in adolescents than adults. Nevertheless, given that elevated dampening appraisals are associated with depressed mood, dampening may partly account for why depressed adolescents struggle to experience positive emotions, and represent a promising target for clinical intervention.

Keywords: Adolescence; Anhedonia; Appraisal style; Depression; Positive affect.