Anger and Depressed Affect: Interindividual and Intraindividual Perspectives

Abstract

The relation between anger and depressed affect was examined with both interindividual and intraindividual analyses. Seventy-seven undergraduate students completed the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961) and kept a psychological diary for 10 consecutive days. The diary included questions dealing with felt anger and expressed anger, and several measures of depressed affect. Only one of four correlational analyses between the number of days on which students reported feeling angry and aggregate measures of depression was significant. However, intraindividual analyses revealed that days on which students reported feeling angry were also days on which they reported higher levels of depressed affect. The tendency to attribute the cause of angry feelings to one's own actions was positively related to depressed affect. The tendency to inhibit expression of anger was positively related to the measures of depression.