The effects of rumination and distraction tasks on psychophysiological responses and mood in dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals

Prior experimental manipulations of ruminative and distractive response style have not included psychophysiological measures or investigated the statistical relation between rumination and the conceptually-related constructs of worry and neuroticism. Dysphoric (n = 84) and nondysphoric participants (n = 86) were randomly assigned to either a rumination task (i.e., self-focused attention) or a distraction task. Results supported prior findings that distraction and rumination differentially impact depressed mood in dysphoric individuals; dysphoric ruminators reported significantly higher levels of postexperiment depressed mood than did dysphoric distractors, even after neuroticism, worry, or response style were included in the empirical model. However, post-rumination worry ratings were significantly higher than postdistraction worry ratings, regardless of initial dysphoria status. Of the psychophysiological responses measured, a significant difference in postrumination systolic blood pressure was found between nondysphoric men (M = 119.88; SE = 1.29) and nondysphoric women (M = 114.88; SE = 1.20). The implications of these results for future response style studies are discussed.