Integration of positive and negative affectivity and cognitive content-specificity: improved discrimination of anxious and depressive symptoms.

In a sample of 159 psychiatric outpatient adults, negative affectivity (NA) was significantly correlated with a broad range of anxiety and depressive symptoms and was not useful for the differentiation of anxiety from depression. Low positive affectivity (PA) was significantly related only to depressive symptoms. Whereas depressive cognitions demonstrated discriminant capability, anxiety cognitions (in isolation) demonstrated nonspecificity. A combination of NA and anxious cognitions significantly predicted anxiety symptoms, better than did cognitions or affect alone. NA, depressive cognitions, and low PA significantly predicted depressive symptoms. Results support the integration of affective and cognitive models for the discrimination of anxious from depressive symptoms and have implications for measure development. Modifications in the cognitive content-specificity theory of anxiety states are discussed.