Recent work has begun to examine the link between motivation for specific emotions and psychopathology. Yet research on this topic to date has focused primarily on depression. To understand patterns of motivation for emotions within and across affective disorders, we assessed motivation for emotions in adults at increased risk for and diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD). We focused on motivation for negative (i.e., sadness) and positive (i.e., happiness) emotions and for emotional instability using self-report and behavioral measures. Both increased BD risk and diagnosis of BD were associated with increased motivation for sadness and decreased motivation for happiness as assessed by behavioral measures. Such motivational tendencies were less consistent when assessed by self-reports. Higher BD risk was associated with increased self-reported motivation for emotional instability (Studies 1–3), although this association was not evident in BD (Study 4). Findings suggest both similarities and differences in motivation for emotions in affective disorders.

最近的工作已开始研究特定情绪动机与精神病理学之间的联系。迄今为止，有关该主题的研究主要集中在抑郁症上。为了了解情感障碍内和跨情感障碍的情绪动机模式，我们评估了罹患双相情感障碍（BD）的风险增加且诊断为躁郁症的成人的情绪动机。我们专注于通过自我报告和行为测量来产生消极（即悲伤）和积极（即幸福）情绪的动机以及情绪不稳定的动机。BD的风险增加和BD的诊断都与悲伤的动机增加和对幸福的动机减少有关（通过行为措施评估）。通过自我报告评估时，这种动机倾向不太一致。BD风险增加与自我报告的情绪不稳定动机增加有关（研究1-3），尽管这种关联在BD中并不明显（研究4）。研究结果表明，情感障碍的情感动机既有相似之处，也有差异。