Investigating psychopathology symptoms and positivity appraisals: A network comparison

A recent study examined network differences between pre- and post-treatment outcomes for Integrative Positive Psychological Intervention for Depression (IPPI-D) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) independently using the network comparison test, and results indicated important differences in the organization of psychopathology symptoms before and after IPPI-D. The present study investigated (a) the avoidant or devaluative processes that depressed individuals demonstrate in response to positivity and (b) how the organization of these processes may change after Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT) in comparison to CBT. Our findings largely supported our hypotheses that (1) there were important differences in the organization of networks between pre-ADepT and post-ADepT (S = 1.559, p = .024), such that the post-ADepT network was denser (S = 2.799) than the pre-ADepT network (S = 1.240), with well-being emerging as a central node in the post-ADepT network, and (2) there were no differences in the organization of the networks between the pre- and post-CBT (M = 0.539, p = .068). Surprisingly, our results revealed that there were no differences between the post-ADepT and post-CBT networks (M = .182, p = .967). These findings provide a fine-tuned investigation of how positivity appraisal in depressed persons, including reward devaluation, can change after engagement in ADepT.