The analytical rumination hypothesis proposes that depression is an evolved response to complicated life stressors or problems. As part of this response, depressive symptoms promote analytical rumination, a prolonged and distraction-resistant style of thinking that functions to address the triggering problem. Analytical rumination involves analytical thinking about why the problem happened (i.e., causal analysis) and how it can be solved or alleviated (i.e., problem-solving analysis). Previous research analyzing cross-sectional data suggests that causal analysis is directly related to depressive symptoms and precedes problem-solving analysis, but this finding should be supported with experimental methods. We used an expressive writing paradigm to investigate the temporal order of the emotional symptoms of depression, causal analysis, and problem-solving analysis in a non-clinical sample. In two studies, we randomized participants to write about their personal problems or a neutral topic (i.e., control writing). All participants reported on their emotions during writing, and they retrospectively reported on their thoughts after writing. Consistent with our predictions, expressive writing reliably increased self-reported sadness and causal analysis but not problem-solving analysis. Linguistic analyses partially supported our predictions. Relative to control writing, expressive writing contained more words related to causal thoughts and problem-solving. Since causal analysis and sadness increased over the short time frame of the writing intervention, while problem-solving analysis was unaffected, the results support our prediction that causal analysis precedes problem-solving analysis. We discuss the limitations of our studies, as well as EW’s utility for studying the analytical rumination hypothesis.

中文翻译：

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使用表达写作来检验关于抑郁性反省的进化假说：悲伤与个人问题的因果分析（而不是解决问题的分析）相吻合

分析性反省假说提出，抑郁症是对复杂的生活压力或问题的进化反应。作为此反应的一部分，抑郁症症状会促进分析性反省，这是一种持久且耐分心的思维方式，可以解决触发问题。分析性反思涉及对问题发生原因（即因果分析）以及如何解决或缓解问题（即问题解决分析）的分析性思考。先前对横截面数据进行分析的研究表明，因果分析与抑郁症状直接相关，并且早于解决问题的分析，但是这一发现应得到实验方法的支持。我们使用了表现力的写作范式来调查抑郁症的情绪症状的时间顺序，因果分析，和非临床样本中的问题解决分析。在两项研究中，我们将参与者随机化，写出有关他们的个人问题或中性话题的内容（即对照写作）。所有参与者都报告了他们在写作过程中的情绪，并回顾了他们在写作后的想法。与我们的预测一致，表达性写作可靠地增加了自我报告的悲伤和因果关系分析，但并没有增加解决问题的能力。语言分析部分支持了我们的预测。相对于控制性写作，表达性写作包含更多与因果思想和解决问题有关的词。由于在写作干预的短时间内因果分析和悲伤感增加了，而解决问题的分析并未受到影响，结果支持我们的预测，即因果分析先于问题解决分析。我们讨论了我们研究的局限性，以及电子战在研究分析性反刍假设中的效用。