反応スタイル理論(Response Styles Theory）の研究動向と課題

抄録

The purpose of this article is to review the studies on response styles theory (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991) and to examine the problems of these studies, as well as to discuss their future directions. Based on our review, we conclude that: (1) the hypothesis that ruminative responses prolong and intensify depression has been supported, (2) the hypothesis that distractive responses shorten and lessen depression has been supported by experimental studies, but not by field studies, and (3) ruminative responses increase pessimistic thinking and negative-biased memories, and decrease problem-solving ability and optimism. These studies have several problems: (1) the content and factorial validity of the Response Styles Questionnaire, which measures ruminative and distractive responses, has not been sufficiently examined, (2) calculating the total score of the distractive responses scale may not reflect the actual effects of distractive responses, and (3) ruminative responses are composed of several factors and the negative ruminative responses factor in particular is more closely related to depression than the other factors, which suggests that the construct validity of ruminative responses has not been sufficiently examined. Based on these discussions, we have proposed future directions for studies on response styles theory.