The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Mental Health 505

TABLE 13.4 NOLEN-HOEKSEMA’S RESPONSES TO DEPRESSION QUESTIONNAIRE

Sample Rumination Scale Items

1. Think about how alone you feel.


2. Think “I won’t be able to do my job/work because I feel so badly.”


3. Think about your feelings of fatigue and achiness.


4. Think about how sad you feel.


5. Go away by yourself and think about why you feel this way.


6. Write down what you are thinking about and analyze it.


7. Analyze your personality and try to understand why you are depressed.


8. Think “Why do I have problems other people don’t have?”


9. Think “What am I doing to deserve this?”


10. Think “Why do I always react this way?”
    Sample Distraction Scale Items


11. Help someone else with something in order to distract yourself.


12. Remind yourself that these feelings won’t last.


13. Go to a favorite place to get your mind off your feelings.


14. Concentrate on your work.


15. Do something you enjoy.
    Source: Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow (1991).

depression. Second, rumination about negative

feelings makes other negative feelings and nega-

tive memories more salient, which reinforces

depression. After failing an exam, other failure

experiences may become increasingly vivid.

Third, rumination is associated with a lack of

social support, which is associated with elevated

rates of depression. Those who ruminate have

difficulties with social network members and

are perceived negatively by others, possibly be-

cause others become annoyed or frustrated with

the person’s perseverance on the problem. If the

person then responds to increased depression by

further rumination, the cycle is difficult to break.

Sample rumination and distraction items from

Nolen-Hoeksema’s Responses to Depression

Questionnaire are shown in Table 13.4.

Nolen-Hoeksema (1987) originally hy-

pothesized that women were more likely than

men to ruminate about their feelings and men

were more likely than women to distract them-

selves. To date, the sex difference in rumina-

tion is well established but the sex difference in

distraction is not (Rood et al., 2009). It is not

clear whether men are more likely than women

to engage in distraction. See if there are sex dif-

ferences in rumination and distraction at your

school with Do Gender 13.4.

DO GENDER 13.4

Sex Differences in

Rumination and Distraction

Ask 10 women and 10 men to think about

how they respond when they are depressed

about an achievement-related failure (e.g.,

failing an exam) and a relationship-related

failure (e.g., relationship breakup). You

choose the two specific failure experiences.

Then ask people how they responded to

each failure experience by having them

answer the items in Table 13.4.

Is there a sex difference in rumina-

tion and distraction? Does it depend on

the situation? Is there another personal-

ity variable related to sex that is linked to

rumination and distraction?

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