The level of identification dysregulation hypothesis predicts that healthy individuals, but not depressed individuals, will use increasingly concrete identifications of goals and actions as their mood becomes sadder and/or less happy.
Rather than sad mood being associated with more concrete identifications of events, goals, and behaviours, mental representations of depressed patients are instead characterised by overgeneralisation and abstraction for negative outcomes (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; Carver, La Voie, Kuhl, & Ganellen, 1988).
For never-depressed participants, greater reductions in happiness were associated with greater shifts towards the use of more concrete identification, r(21) = -.66, p <.001.
These two variables explained 6% of the variance in change in concrete identification, F 2, 43) = 2.33, MSE = 22.66, p =.11.
This interaction explained a further 13% of the variance in change in concrete identification, and the overall model remained significant, F 3, 42) = 5.93, MSE = 46.04, p =.001.
This interaction explained a further 15% of the variance in change in concrete identification, and the overall model was significant, F 3, 42) = 5.00, MSE = 40.76, p =.005.
Similarly, within action identification theory (AIT Vallacherr & Wegner, 1987), an abstract identification represents the purpose and ends of an action ("why it is carried out"), whereas a concrete identification represents the action's process and means ("how it is carried out").
The level of identification dysregulation hypothesis predicts that there should be a significant interaction between group and change in mood in predicting change in concrete identification.
Elaborations on these theories (Watkins, 2008, 2010) also hypothesise that mood state will causally influence the level of identification adopted, with sad mood leading to adoption of more concrete identifications relative to happy mood.
Abstract identifications of goals, events, and behaviors are focused on the desirability and importance of outcomes, whereas concrete identifications are focused on the feasibility, mechanics, and planning of outcomes.
