| Abstract: | Loss of the ability to experience or anticipate pleasure is characteristic of depressive disorders. It plays a central role in psychosocial theories of depression that relate the etiology of depression to a poverty of positive reinforcement from the social and nonsocial environment. This experiment studied the voluntary utilization of putative pleasurable activities in hospitalized psychiatric patients. A computer-based selection of motor-skills, cognitive, and chance games was available to 73 inpatients on a 24-hour/day, 7-day/week schedule. Patients had the following diagnoses: Unipolar Depressed (n?=?25), Delusional Depressed (n?=?9), Secondary Depressed (n?=?10), Bipolar (n?=?12, Schizophrenic (n?=?5), and Other (n?=?12). Patients were studied over the course of their hospitalization with regard to self-rated mood, game and difficulty selection, expectancy of success, and actual game scores. A total of 7,744 games were voluntarily played by the patients. Analyses revealed that different diagnostic groups engaged in the games differently, showing "styles" of play that suggest personality-motivated differences in the use of pleasurable activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
