Motivation to obtain self-relevant feedback in depressed college students

Results support Rehm's (1977) description of a heightened need for external reassurance among depressed persons and suggest that depressed students were willing to relinquish a greater amount of money to obtain self-relevant feedback.

Abstract

Thirty depressed and 30 nondepressed college students completed a social judgment task. Students initially received either positive, negative, or no preliminary feedback and were told that they could obtain more extended feedback about their performance at a cost of $.20 for each unit of feedback. As predicted, depressed students were willing to relinquish a greater amount of money to obtain self-relevant feedback. Additionally, depressed and nondepressed Ss were more motivated to obtain additional feedback after they had received positive or no preliminary feedback than after they had received negative preliminary feedback. Results support Rehm's (1977) description of a heightened need for external reassurance among depressed persons.