Anhedonia and depression: Anticipatory, Consummatory, and Recall Deficits

Author (Your Name)

Kaitlin Hanley, Colby College

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. Psychology Dept.

Advisor(s)

Yulia Chentsova Dutton

Second Advisor

Ayanna Kim Thomas

Abstract

Current conceptions of anhedonia as a key symptom of depression do not consider the importance of anticipatory, consummatory, and recall deficits involved in anhedonia. Sixty-one depressed and non-depressed, college-student participants provided reports of anticipated pleasure to tasting chocolates, tasted chocolates and rated their experience of pleasure, and provided recalled reports of pleasure to the experience one day later. Results demonstrated a deficit in the ability to anticipate experiencing pleasure for depressed participants when compared to non-depressed controls, however, their reports of consummatory pleasure and recalled pleasure did not differ significantly from non-depressed control participants. This study suggests that actual experiential deficits may not drive anhedonia, but instead cognitive deficits may be involved. Future studies need to focus more on the nature of this deficit, particularly in a clinical population.

Keywords

Anhedonia, Recollection (Psychology), Depression, Mental, Behaviorism (Psychology)

Recommended Citation

Copyright

Colby College theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed or downloaded from this site for the purposes of research and scholarship. Reproduction or distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the author.