Domain-specific hope and personal style: Toward an integrative understanding of dysphoria

The current project presents a simultaneous analysis of personal style and hope, two constructs that are implicated in dysphoria and mental health. Measures of personal style, domain-specific hope, dysphoria, and anxiety were administered to 232 undergraduate students. It was hypothesized that domain-specific hope (achievement-oriented and interpersonal) would moderate the effects of personal style (autonomy and sociotropy) on dysphoria after controlling for anxiety. Hierarchical regression analyses offered partial support for the study hypotheses. In conditions where the variables were in the same domain (i.e., congruent), main effects were observed for the personal style and hope variables and an interaction was observed between autonomy and achievement-oriented hope. Gender differences were observed in the noncongruent analysis of autonomy and interpersonal hope. The noncongruent interaction between autonomy and interpersonal hope was predictive of depression for females but not for males. Hope is discussed as a construct that alters the relationship between personal style and dysphoria. Significant interactions with gender suggest that hope operates in concert with autonomy differently for females and males.