Relationship between depression and positive and negative expectancies for cigarette smoking

People with depression may be more motivated than non-smokers to hold positive expectancies for smoking, as they may have fewer positive reinforcers in their lives. However, it is unlikely that depressed individuals would be more optimistic about the effects of smoking in general. In fact, Beck (1987) has proposed that the depressive cognitive style is characterized by negative views of the future. Thus, depressed smokers might have greater negative expectancies for cigarette use than non-depressed smokers. In the context of 55 cigarette smokers seeking treatment to quit smoking, it was predicted that those who scored higher on the Depression Proneness Inventory and/or met criteria for major depressive disorder would score higher on both the positive and the negative subscales of the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire - Adult. While these specific predictions were only partially borne out, interesting relationships between depression and smoking expectancies appeared.