Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health
Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming associated deficits (e.g., attentional bias) demands cognitive effort and motivation. Previous studies on healthy individuals have found cognitive motivation to positively relate to self-regulation and ne...
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-09-01
|
Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.581681/full |
id |
doaj-42fe5657512c4742ad6d8af60f89061c |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-42fe5657512c4742ad6d8af60f89061c2021-09-21T06:26:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-09-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.581681581681Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental HealthAlexander Strobel0Aniko Farkas1Jürgen Hoyer2Ursula Melicherova3Volker Köllner4Volker Köllner5Anja Strobel6Differential and Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, GermanyDivision of Personality Psychology and Assessment, Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, GermanyBehavioural Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, GermanyPsychosomatic Rehabilitation Research Group, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyPsychosomatic Rehabilitation Research Group, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rehabilitation Center Seehof, Federal German Pension Agency, Teltow, GermanyDivision of Personality Psychology and Assessment, Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, GermanyBackground: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming associated deficits (e.g., attentional bias) demands cognitive effort and motivation. Previous studies on healthy individuals have found cognitive motivation to positively relate to self-regulation and negatively to depressive symptoms. A test of these associations in a clinical sample is lacking.Methods: We assessed cognitive motivation, self-regulation and depressive symptoms by means of well-validated questionnaires in N = 1,060 psychosomatic rehabilitation in-patients before and after treatment. Data were split and analyzed in two steps: We tested previously reported cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of all variables as well as their longitudinal changes in a first sample. Afterward, findings and derived hypotheses were replicated and tested in a second sample.Results: Analyses of both samples confirmed earlier reports on positive associations between cognitive motivation and self-regulation, and negative associations of both with depressive symptoms. While the change in all variables was predicted by their baseline scores, higher baseline cognitive motivation was found to predict stronger improvements in self-regulation, and lower baseline depression scores to predict smaller changes in cognitive motivation and self-regulation. In addition, the change in cognitive motivation partially mediated the association between the changes in depressive symptoms and self-regulation.Conclusion: Based on a large longitudinal data set, the present study expands previous findings and suggests a resource allocation model in which decreasing depressive symptoms lead to a release of capacities benefitting self-regulation directly, and indirectly via cognitive motivation.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.581681/fullNeed for Cognitiondepressive symptomseffortful controlself-regulationinhibitionattention |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Alexander Strobel Aniko Farkas Jürgen Hoyer Ursula Melicherova Volker Köllner Volker Köllner Anja Strobel |
spellingShingle |
Alexander Strobel Aniko Farkas Jürgen Hoyer Ursula Melicherova Volker Köllner Volker Köllner Anja Strobel Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health Frontiers in Psychology Need for Cognition depressive symptoms effortful control self-regulation inhibition attention |
author_facet |
Alexander Strobel Aniko Farkas Jürgen Hoyer Ursula Melicherova Volker Köllner Volker Köllner Anja Strobel |
author_sort |
Alexander Strobel |
title |
Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health |
title_short |
Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health |
title_full |
Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health |
title_fullStr |
Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health |
title_sort |
cognitive motivation as a resource for affective adjustment and mental health |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychology |
issn |
1664-1078 |
publishDate |
2021-09-01 |
description |
Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming associated deficits (e.g., attentional bias) demands cognitive effort and motivation. Previous studies on healthy individuals have found cognitive motivation to positively relate to self-regulation and negatively to depressive symptoms. A test of these associations in a clinical sample is lacking.Methods: We assessed cognitive motivation, self-regulation and depressive symptoms by means of well-validated questionnaires in N = 1,060 psychosomatic rehabilitation in-patients before and after treatment. Data were split and analyzed in two steps: We tested previously reported cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of all variables as well as their longitudinal changes in a first sample. Afterward, findings and derived hypotheses were replicated and tested in a second sample.Results: Analyses of both samples confirmed earlier reports on positive associations between cognitive motivation and self-regulation, and negative associations of both with depressive symptoms. While the change in all variables was predicted by their baseline scores, higher baseline cognitive motivation was found to predict stronger improvements in self-regulation, and lower baseline depression scores to predict smaller changes in cognitive motivation and self-regulation. In addition, the change in cognitive motivation partially mediated the association between the changes in depressive symptoms and self-regulation.Conclusion: Based on a large longitudinal data set, the present study expands previous findings and suggests a resource allocation model in which decreasing depressive symptoms lead to a release of capacities benefitting self-regulation directly, and indirectly via cognitive motivation. |
topic |
Need for Cognition depressive symptoms effortful control self-regulation inhibition attention |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.581681/full |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT alexanderstrobel cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth AT anikofarkas cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth AT jurgenhoyer cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth AT ursulamelicherova cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth AT volkerkollner cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth AT volkerkollner cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth AT anjastrobel cognitivemotivationasaresourceforaffectiveadjustmentandmentalhealth |
_version_ |
1717373702644957184 |