The effect of automatic thought and irrational beliefs on emotion and depression

Although there are many studies on negative automatic thoughts and irrational beliefs about the effects of these variables on negative affect, positive affect and depression in the international literature, there are deficiencies in studies on these concepts in our country. In particular, negative sub-dimensions of automatic thoughts and irrational beliefs have not been studied much. In this study, sub-dimensions of negative automatic thoughts and irrational beliefs were examined by taking into account the variables of negative affect, positive affect and depression. The study was conducted with 270 participants. Correlation analyzes were used to investigate relationality and linear regression analysis was used to investigate the cause-effect relationships. Relational analyzes were significant. According to the results, it was found that rigidity predicted depression from four dimensions of irrational beliefs scale however, it was found that only two dimensions out of five dimensions of negative automatic thoughts scale predicted depression. It was found that irrational beliefs of escape from the problem and emotional irresponsibility predicted positive emotions in the opposite direction. Although negative sub-dimensions of negative thoughts and irrational beliefs sub-dimensions were associated with negative emotions, they did not have any significant effect. Repeating the research results in a larger sample was proposed for future research. Key Words: Depression, Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Irrational Beliefs, Automatic Thoughts.